On International Safe Abortion Day, EuroMed Rights and its Working Group on Women’s Rights, Gender Justice and Individual Freedoms call on governments across the Euro-Mediterranean region to protect, respect and fulfil the sexual and reproductive rights of women and all people who need abortion care, and to guarantee effective access to safe, legal, timely and confidential abortion services.
This year’s International Safe Abortion Day is marked under the theme “Solidarity in Action: Advance Reproductive Justice and Urgently Strengthen Health Systems for Comprehensive Abortion Care.” Across the world, and especially in the Euro-Mediterranean region, this call comes at a critical moment.
Across the Euro-Mediterranean, access remains deeply unequal. Some countries have strengthened legal protections in recent years; others continue to criminalise abortion or maintain highly restrictive frameworks; and some have rolled back protections that were once in place. Even where abortion is legal on paper, people face real barriers in practice: restrictive gestational limits, conscientious objection without referral, shortages of providers, geographical and financial inequalities, stigma and delays.