The Economist (20210227) by calibre

Author:calibre
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, pdf
Tags: news, The Economist
Publisher: calibre
Published: 2021-02-26T01:16:01.270000+00:00

Abortion laws within the EU are a patchwork. They range from relatively permissive in places such as the Netherlands to practically banned in Poland (and forbidden altogether in Malta). The bulk fall in between. There are no common rules. Normally, the EU steps in to harmonise law. On reproductive rights it has no competence. Given that the bloc ranges from the devout to the enthusiastically godless, EU officials would rather ignore the issue. Yet thanks to the free movement of people and goods—and the increasingly blurred distinction between European and domestic politics—the EU still makes it easier to obtain abortions within its territory, whether it tries to or not.

Consider how organisations such as Abortion Without Borders work. Activists in Poland offer only advice, which is perfectly legal. Groups based outside Poland will arrange the delivery of pills, book flights, arrange translators and pay for treatment. In one case, they even coughed up the deposit for a hire-car. In Poland these activities would leave them open to prosecution. In, say, the Netherlands, no one can touch them. Posting abortion pills into Poland requires beating the authorities. Crackdowns have been mounted in the past. “We found other ways,” says Dr Rebecca Gomperts, a campaigner for legal abortion. Thanks to the single market, sending a package from one part of the bloc to another requires no extra paperwork. It is easy for goods to slip through. If it is a game of whack-a-mole, the moles are winning.

Likewise, freedom of movement means that abortions available in one EU country are available to all EU citizens, provided they have the means to get there. Groups such as Abortion Without Borders make that possible by paying travel costs (and, during the pandemic, arranging covid-19 tests). Usually, the EU operates on the principle that a person or business should be treated roughly the same in any EU country. Without common rules, arbitrage comes into play: companies can move from states with tougher regulations to those with lighter ones. This is exactly what can happen, at least temporarily, when a Polish woman wants an abortion. She boards a train to where the rules won’t stop her.

Abortion law in Europe is, on the whole, liberalising. Ireland allowed abortion in 2018, as religious opposition faded and the law was routinely flouted by women who went to Britain for terminations. Availability varies between different European countries, however. Terminations beyond 12 weeks are tightly limited, with only a handful of countries offering them in most circumstances. (When Britain, which allows abortions with little restriction up to 24 weeks, left the bloc, the options were further reduced.) The upshot is that women head to wherever they can get what they want. Enter the waiting room in a Dutch clinic offering late-stage abortions and one will find women from across Europe.

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