European Parliament votes to abolish human rights. Luckily, the vote is irrelevant

The European Parliament has today voted in favour of a not-legally-binding “Report on Sexual and Reproductive Rights” bearing the (henceforward disgraceful) name of the Croat Socialist (ex-Communist) Predrag Fred Matić, which has the purpose to abolish basic human rights and substituting them with their opposite. According to this report, having their unborn children butchered is a “fundamental right” for women, and it is an obligation for doctors, including those who oppose the hideous practice for reasons of conscience, to do the butchering whenever the woman so requests. The report says that pre-birth baby-butchering should be subject neither to time limits nor to any other conditions.

Besides trampling on elementary human rights (such as, to name just the most evident examples, the right to life of the unborn child and the freedom of conscience for medical practitioners), the document also stands in defiance of reality, making the utterly childish claim that “men can get pregnant and give birth”. Furthermore, it egregiously violates the rights of people suffering from undesired “same-sex attraction”, calling for the prohibition of any therapy to help them overcome their condition. Many of the LGBT persons committing suicide each year do so because no such therapy is offered to them.

With this vote, the pro-abortion lobby within the European Parliament has cancelled out its spectacular defeat of 2013, when a similar text, the so-called “Estrela Report”, was voted down and replaced with a (legally correct) statement that the EU has no say on abortion, which falls within the exclusive competence of Member States. The legal situation has not changed since. EP resolutions are still not binding, and the competence for regulating abortion still lies with Member States.

Making good use of that competence, Poland has recently abrogated out a law that in a discriminatory manner allowed fo abort children suspected of suffering from a handicap.

Being not legally binding by virtue of both its form and substance, the Matić Report will produce no legal effect at all. Nevertheless it is a worrying sign that a majority of MEPs would be willing to abolish the most basic and self-evident human rights if they were allowed to.

During the debate EU Commissioner Helena Dalli acknowledged that health policy was an exclusive competence of EU Member States. She added that “all Commission services will closely examine them (the recommendations in the resolution) to see where we can include them in our policies.” Which is a polite way of saying that they are not legally binding.