In Europe, possible reversal of US abortion rights ruling elicits concern and criticism

GENEVA (NYTIMES) - On Tuesday (May 3), news that the US Supreme Court might overturn Roe v Wade triggered criticism and concern across Europe, a continent that in recent decades has consistently moved toward freer access to abortion.

A referendum in San Marino last year overwhelmingly supported the legalisation of abortion. In Northern Ireland it was legalised in 2019, and in Ireland in 2018. In recent months, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have all taken steps to ease access to the procedure.

Poland is the only country in Europe that has tightened abortion laws since 1994, according to the Centre for Reproductive Rights.

"That is squarely, strongly, the trend across the European region," said Ms Leah Hoctor, the center's regional director for Europe. She added that if Roe v Wade were overturned, "I don't think it will have a similarly harmful impact in terms of European law and policy."

The Supreme Court confirmed on Tuesday that a draft opinion in the abortion case, which had been leaked to Politico, was authentic. But, the court said, it was not final.

Still, many European leaders took to social media, some in support of abortion rights and others hoping a change in US law would help their cause.

Ms Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of the Scottish government, tweeted on Tuesday morning that, "The right of women to decide what happens to our own bodies is a human right." She added that "experience tells us that removing the legal right to abortion doesn't stop abortions happening - it just makes them unsafe and puts the lives of women at much greater risk".

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, also spoke against potential restrictions to abortion. "London stands with women across the United States today," he wrote on Twitter. "Roe v Wade enshrined women's fundamental rights over their own bodies and access to health care. That cannot and must not be undone."

In a majority of European countries, abortion bans were lifted through a legislative process, not a court decision.

Most European countries allow abortion without any restrictions up to 15 weeks of pregnancy, a limit earlier than the cutoff set by Roe v Wade (around 23 weeks), with abortion generally only allowed in specific conditions after that. But access to the procedure has been uneven, sometimes depending on the woman's location, with some doctors refusing to perform abortions.

In Ireland, where one of the world's most restrictive abortion bans was repealed in 2018, abortion-rights groups expressed concern.

"It's terrifying," said Ms Erin Darcy, an abortion-rights activist in Ireland.

Activists there were already worried about a government plan to hand control of a state-funded maternity hospital to a charity linked to the Catholic Church, and said they hoped the leaked Supreme Court decision would galvanise protests against the plan.

"We have seen, with the reported imminent overturning of Roe v Wade in the United States, that rights, once secured, must continue to be fought and advocated for," Ms Roisin Shorthall, a member of Parliament who sits on its health committee, said in a statement. "We do not want to see a similar diminution in the reproductive rights of Irish women coming in by stealth."

But anti-abortion lawmakers, who have long been outnumbered in Western Europe, welcomed the news as an important precedent that could help them roll back legislation in their countries.

In Spain, Ms Lourdes Mendez, a lawyer and lawmaker representing the far-right Vox party, cheered the news. "Will our Spanish Constitutional Court have the honesty and decency to rule that the abortion law was a mistake from the start and declare it unconstitutional?" she wrote on Twitter.

In Britain, Mr David Kurten, leader of the conservative Heritage Party, said on Twitter that the draft opinion was "GOOD NEWS!" He added that it would be "saving the lives of millions of unborn children every year in the USA."

Ms Beatrix von Storch, a member of German Parliament and deputy leader of the Alternative for Germany, called the potential revision of Roe v Wade "long overdue" and added that after the court's ruling about 50 years ago, many Americans "had to accept with horror that in the following decades millions of unborn children could be legally killed before they were born".

But Professor Jennifer Thomson, a lecturer at the University of Bath who has studied abortion, said that for the most part, the issue was more settled in Western Europe, and that what was happening in the US was linked to a specific legal and political system in which the Supreme Court is the ultimate interpreter of the law.

"We just don't see that type of political debates around abortion" in most Western Europe, she said. "There is just not the appetite for it among the broader population."

Still, there are exceptions in central and Eastern Europe.

Poland imposed a near-total ban on abortion last year, and Malta has Europe's most restrictive law on the matter, with abortion still largely illegal.

Abortion-rights groups in Malta have been calling for a debate on abortion and a change in the law. Anti-abortion activists said that the Supreme Court's decision, if confirmed, would give their arguments more weight.

Mr Anthony Gatt, the director of Caritas Malta, a Catholic charity, said that countries with laws allowing abortion were now "putting the brakes on them."

"Let's learn from that experience instead of plunging into that experience ourselves," he said.