Abortion activists have collected 1.2 million signatures for a European Citizens’ Initiative. In an interview with the German newspaper ‘Tagespost’, Cornelia Kaminski of Aktion Lebensrecht für Alle (ALfA) sharply criticises its goals and financing.
Ms Kaminski, the European Citizens’ Initiative ‘My Voice, My Choice’, which calls for ‘safe and accessible abortions’, claims to have collected 1.2 million signatures within the European Union, thereby meeting the required quorum. As federal chairwoman of ‘Aktion Lebensrecht für alle’ (ALfA), one of the largest pro-life organisations in Europe, how do you assess this result?
What the initiators are touting as a success is actually a significant setback: the European Citizens’ Initiative ‘My Voice, My Choice’, which calls on the European Union to finance abortion tourism across the borders of member states, has collected barely more than 1.2 million signatures within the set deadline. The number of supporters thus remains well behind that of One of Us, which was also supported by ALfA and is the most successful European citizens’ initiative to date, with over 1.9 million signatures collected in 2014.
At that time, high-reach platforms such as Instagram and TikTok did not even exist….
No, most of the signatures were actually collected at stands in city centres, in church communities and at events, without any mass distribution via social media. Germany was particularly successful in this regard. The citizens’ initiative was supported by thousands of volunteers who had to make do without a windfall from ‘philanthropic’ foundations, but who were very passionate about the cause.
Speaking of financing, you also take issue with the financing of the initiative. What is it that bothers you?
I consider the financing of ‘My Voice, my Choice’ to be questionable. Research by the European Centre for Law and Justice revealed that funds also came from European tax coffers. Nineteen organisations supporting this citizens’ initiative received direct financial support from the EU, including the Austrian Interest Group of Feminist Authors and the Amazone Association.
One of the initiators of the European Citizens’ Initiative is the ‘Institute 8 March’ in Slovenia. Who or what is behind it?
‘My Voice, My Choice’ is represented by Slovenian Nika Kovač, founder and director of the Institute 8 March. The influential feminist institute originally emerged from a campaign for same-sex marriage in Slovenia. After the relevant law was rejected in a referendum, Kovač decided to create a permanent platform for feminist and social issues. The ‘institute’ relies on storytelling for its political campaigns – stories instead of facts, one might say. The institute is funded by the Open Society Foundation and International Planned Parenthood – whose European branch, IPPF European Network, has received €3.2 million from the EU between 2022 and 2025. German supporters of ‘My Voice, My Choice’ – the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy and Doctors for Choice – are also funded either directly or through the international association by the Open Society Foundation (OSF), which subsidises a total of 20 of the supporting organisations. Given this massive support, it is more than astonishing that the initiative still fell far short of the success of One of Us.
You also criticise the European Commission, which now has to deal with the demands made by ‘My Voice, My Choice’ after the quorum was met. Why?
The European Commission should not have allowed this initiative in the first place, in accordance with the EU treaties. The initiative’s demand that the EU provide a fund to finance abortions in its member states violates the fundamental principles of subsidiarity and respect for the sovereignty of European member states. Abortion does not fall within the EU’s remit – neither the legislation on it nor its financing. Now that the result falls well short of the 2014 vote by European citizens in favour of protecting life, this is another good reason for the Commission to formally reject the demands of My Voice, My Choice. The protection of life and human dignity are part of the foundation of values on which the European Union is based. The majority of European citizens are aware of this – and rightly expect politicians in Brussels and Strasbourg not to undermine this foundation.
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