European leaders and media outlets are in a meltdown over the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade — with some fearing that the ruling could ’embolden’ pro-life movements across the continent.
Many of these European leaders, who until yesterday could not define what a woman is, are suddenly masquerading as true defenders of women’s rights.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson criticized the top U.S. court’s decision saying it was “a big step backwards.” The leader of the UK Conservative Party added that he “always believed in women’s right to choose.”
French President Emmanuel Macron portrayed the U.S. ruling as a breach of fundamental rights. “Abortion is a fundamental right for all women. It must be protected. I express my solidarity with the women whose freedoms are today challenged by the Supreme Court of the United States of America,” Macron declared.
The First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon called it “one of the darkest days for women’s rights in my lifetime.”
“Obviously the immediate consequences will be suffered by women in the U.S.—but this will embolden antiabortion & antiwomen forces in other countries, too.” the Irish leader feared.
The remarks made by these leaders echo the position recently taken by the European Union. Weeks ahead of the SCOTUS decision, the Brussels-based EU parliament passed a resolution telling the top U.S. court to uphold the 1972 abortion ruling.
EU lawmakers “adopted a non-binding resolution by 364 votes in favour, 154 against and 37 abstentions to remind the United States Supreme Court of the urgency in upholding the landmark case of Roe v. Wade,” Belgian newspaper The Brussels Times reported June 11.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau found the sharpest words to rebuke the SCOTUS ruling. Trudeau said the decision was “horrific” and that “no government, politician or man should tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her body.”
Newspaper front pages across Europe were splattered with the images of angry pro-abortion activists outside the U.S. Supreme Court, and carried one-sided editorials and commentaries rebuking the ruling.
British newspaper The Guardian pinned the entire blame on former U.S. President Donald Trump. “The short version of how Americans lost their right to terminate a pregnancy might be summed up in one name: Trump,” the left-wing daily decried.
“The real estate tycoon and reality-TV star first shocked the world by winning the US presidency, then rewarded his base by confirming three supreme court justices to a nine-member bench, thus rebalancing the court to lean conservative for a generation to come,” the newspaper lamented.
The Swiss tabloid Blick also came to the same conclusion, writing that “Trump played a decisive role in taking away the right of abortion from the Americans.”
The influential German weekly, Der Spiegel, reported the court’s decision with the headline: “The Triumph of Trump’s Judges.”
“The decision is a turning point,” the publication commented. “The country witnesses a shift to the right. (…) The political rift is getting bigger,” the magazine wrote.
“A Brutal Turning Point in the Modern U.S. History,” was the headline in the leading German newspaper Die Welt. “After Supreme Court’s overturning of a landmark ruling on abortion, many states are likely to ban abortion to a greater extent soon. The consequences will be swift and drastic for those affected,” the German daily opined.
The leading French newspaper, Le Monde, took comfort on the statement of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who promised to continue American tax-payer funding for abortion programs across the world.
“The State Department “will remain fully committed to helping provide access to reproductive health services and advancing reproductive rights around the world,”,” the secretary of state said in a statement,” the French newspaper noted.
A SCOTUS “dominated by Republican judges, gives states the right to ban abortion,” French daily Le Figaro reported.
Spain’s leading newspaper El Pais focused on the protests following the ruling. “The Movement in Defense of Abortion Rights Takes to U.S. Street After Supreme Court Ruling,” its headline said. “Thousands of people, from feminists to LGBTI activists, protest the overturning of Roe vs. Wade,” the newspaper wrote.
[Excerpts from the European news coverage translated by the author]
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