The surprising announcement yesterday afternoon by Commissioners Lahbib and Mînzatu that abortions can now be financed by the European Social Fund (ESF+) is probably one of the most outrageous abuses of power in the history of the European Union, which is by no means lacking in such brazen transgressions. It is an attempt to change existing law without any legislative procedure, simply by means of a ‘communication’ – by suddenly interpreting it in a completely different way than it has been understood until now.
This course of action is in clear violation of EU Treaties, which require that legal changes can only be enacted through legal procedures, not simply by holding a press conference in which it is announced that a law has, for reasons unknown, changed its meaning overnight. It also shows that the Von-der-Leyen Commission, which lectures everyone else on the importance of the “rule of law”, is itself probably not aware what that term even means. From a constitutional point of view, is certainly illegal and should give every democrat cause for concern, regardless of their worldview. If the executive power is allowed to re-interpret rules in this way, then nothing and nobody is secure anymore.
“My Voice, My Choice”, the fake grassroots movement that has little support among normal citizens, but lots of support from political and financial elites, crows victory, but the statement it has released is revelatory: “For the first time”, the Commission asserts that EU funds can be used to fund the killing of children for the sole reason that one wants to get rid if them, based on the spurious claim “abortion is a matter of public health”.
Yes, precisely, this is the point: the European Social Fund has existed for decades, and the relevant provisions have always said that the fund, though mainly intended for basic needs such as food and housing, can also be used to finance basic healthcare for the poor. But until yesterday, nobody – really nobody, not even the most radical supporters of abortion – have ever had the temerarious idea of claiming that this so-called “healthcare” could include the killing of children.
Neither did the initiators of “My Voice, My Choice” have that idea – otherwise they would not have needed to launch that odious initiative -, nor had the Commission or any of the Member States ever understood the ESF+ as an available funding source for abortion. But all of a sudden two Commissioners step out on a podium and announce that they are now changing the law …. or, not actually the law, but its interpretation.
These are Ms. Lahbib’s very words: “From now on, we are granting Member States the possibility to use EU funding, the European Social Fund, to improve access to abortion.”
From now on.
We are granting.
One thing becomes very clear from these words: Until now, this was not the law, or at least nobody thought it was. Now, as from today, it is. Because the Commission has the power of deciding this. (Or so it believes)
This is in fact an intended change of legislation. Not one, though, that is brought about by a legislative procedure, or at least by a judicial act (however critical one must be of ‘judicial activism). No, this is just a new – and rather surprising – legal interpretation given a press-conference.
The Commission’s Communication, despite being subject to judicial review, is not a legislative act. It does not set new rules. It merely an opinion – and in this case, an ill-reasoned one. There are, to be sure, lots of references to “health”, “reproductive health”, “sexual health”, or “healthcare” in this communication, many of them printed in bold to underline how important it all is. But upon closer examination, the Commission is unable to point to any provision that defines abortion as a form of healthcare. Such a definition does not exist, neither in the context of the European Social Fund, nor anywhere else in EU law. This is the glaring gap in the Commission’s reasoning.
The Commission’s idea of using the ESF to fund abortions has therefore no basis in the law.
The abortion lobby, and with it the Commission, seem to adhere to the opinion that an act becomes “healthcare” if it is performed by a person wearing a white doctor’s coat, using a scalpel or other medical instruments. Yet health care is an act undertaken with the intention of restoring or preserving someone’s health, and what defines an abortion is not the white coat and the use of medical devices, but the intention to kill a child for the sole reason that one wants to get rid of it. Abortion is not healthcare, but the direct opposite of it.
If abortion is healthcare, then words have no meanings anymore and everything can be everything: war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength. The Commission’s new understanding of healthcare is truly Orwellian.
Winston Smith wrote that “freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes for”, binding freedom to truth. The antithesis, also found in Orwell’s seminal novel, is to decree that two plus two make five, or three, or whatever else the Party wants it to be.
In a democracy, laws are made by orderly legislative procedures, not by a casual announcement in a press conference. And under the rule of law, laws have clear and certain meanings that remain reliable and do not change unless the law itself is changed.
The Commission’s pronouncement on abortion being eligible for funding under the ESF is compatible neither with the one nor with the other.
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