EU opens up funding to guarantee abortion rights across bloc

People protest against anti-abortion laws, near in front of the Constitutional Tribunal headquarters in Warsaw, Poland. Picture: AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski

EU states will be able to tap into a social fund to help citizens access safe abortions, in an announcement hailed as a “victory for women”.

The roots of Thursday’s announcement go back to a long campaign for the European Commission to create a funding mechanism that would allow women from countries with near-total bans on abortion, such as Malta and Poland, to go where it is legal.