Representatives of the Catholic Church at the EU have again vigorously protested attempts to assert a right to abortion.

The President of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE), Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ, met with the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, last week.

Cardinal Hollerich insisted that the attempt to see abortion as a fundamental right, “not only goes against the respect of the dignity of every human being, which is one of the pillars of the EU, but it will also gravely endanger the right to freedom of religion, of thought and conscience and the possibility of exercising conscientious objection.”

His meeting anticipates the European Parliament’s response to the overturning of Roe v Wade in the USA. It is expected to call for safe access to abortion, and condemn what it considers a “backsliding in women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights in the US.”