In response to a written question from Members of the European Parliament, the European Commission has now been forced to admit that it (indirectly) funded the “My Voice, My Choice” abortion initiative. This is an embarrassment not only for the Commission, whose claim to be an impartial and objective “guardian of the Treaties” is thus called into question, but also for the abortion initiative, whose narrative of a “grassroots movement” collapses like a failed soufflé
MEPs Bert-Jan Ruissen (ECR), Stephen Nikola Bartulica (ECR), Miriam Lexmann (PPE), Jadwiga Wiśniewska (ECR), Aurelijus Veryga (ECR), Laurence Trochu (ECR), Paolo Inselvini (ECR), Margarita de la Pisa Carrión (PfE), Željana Zovko (PPE) submitted this Written Question (No P-000238/2026) 0N 21 January. 2026:
The European Citizens Initiative (ECI) My Voice, My Choice is currently under review by the Commission. The initiative calls for the creation of a European abortion fund to enable women with no or limited access to abortion in their own Member State to have an abortion in a different Member State. The organisation behind this ECI is huge. According to the transparency register, it employs 30 full-time lobbyists. These individuals are an almost constant presence in Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg and very active in lobbying and social media. This can only be made possible by substantial funding.
- 1.Can the Commission clarify whether My Voice, My Choice or any affiliated organisations, including the 8 March Institute, have received direct or indirect EU funding, including through operating grants, project grants, sub-grants, or EU-funded intermediaries?
- 2.Given that organisations such as the International Planned Parenthood Federation, which are known recipients of EU funding, are reported donors or partners of My Voice, My Choice, how does the Commission ensure that EU funds are not indirectly used to support or promote an ECI?
- 3.Considering the huge scale of this pro-abortion lobby, is the Commission willing to limit lobby activities in funding, staffing and other means?
“Equality” Commissioner Hadja Lahbib, whose close ideological ties to the abortion agenda are well known, has now given the followng answer:
Regulation (EU) 2019/788 on the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) provides for rules on transparency from the group of organisers on the sources of funding.
Based on the information published by the organisers of the said ECI, the sources of funding are available for transparency and accountability. Amongst its listed sponsors, only the Zavod Raziskovalni inštitut 8. marec is a beneficiary of EU funding.
The Zavod Raziskovalni inštitut 8. marec is a member of a consortium that has been awarded funding for the implementation of an action grant to foster active civic participation among youth and civil society across the Western Balkans.
Any EU funding received through a grant agreement has to be used for the purposes specified in this agreement, in accordance with the objectives of the relevant EU programme.
Therefore, all the costs reported by the consortium during the reporting periods must be linked to the activities described in Annex I (description of the action (DoA)) of the grant agreement.
The Commission does not instruct beneficiaries to support particular positions in their described activities. It requires the activities to be carried out by beneficiaries in accordance with the DoA
Furthermore, the Commission has issued guidance[4] applicable to all spending programmes clarifying that advocacy activities in relation to EU legislation and policy should not be mandated as a requirement or condition for EU financing.
Although the Commissioner initially tries to give as evasive an answer as possible, it is perfectly clear from this response that the abortion initiative has indirectly benefited from EU funding.
According to official figures, the “8 March Institute” has spent around 200,000 euros on the abortion initiative – that is roughly a fifth of the initiative’s total budget and (taking inflation into account) in itself significantly more than the total budget of the pro-life EBI “One of Us”, which collected a far greater number of signatures for a diametrically opposed cause.
One can therefore describe “My Voice, My Choice” with a good conscience as the first ECI funded by the Commission – a democratic farce one would expect to see in Putin’s Russia rather than in a Western democracy.
It is rather odd that, whilst the Commissioner points out that “all costs reported by the consortium during the reporting periods must be linked to the activities described in Annex I (description of the action (DoA)) of the grant agreement”, she does not consider it necessary to explain in more detail which concrete activities are listed in that Annex.
Even if the consortium to which the institute belongs has received “an action grant to foster active civic participation among youth and civil society across the Western Balkans”, the phrase “foster active civic participation among youth and civil society” is, in any case, broad enough to cover the organisation of a citizens’ initiative, whatever its purpose may be.
Conveniently, the Commissioner also fails to mention the fact that the abortion lobby ‘International Planned Parenthood Federation – European Network’ (IPPF-EN) receives around one million euros annually from the Commission as an operating grant.
one-of-us.org 