A resolution declaring that abortion is a human right has been defeated for a second time this morning by the European Parliament.

The Estrela report, was narrowly defeated when an alternative resolution tabled by the centre-right  groups was approved by 334 votes to 327, with 35 abstentions.

The alternative motion, sponsored by the European People’s Party (EPP) and the European Conservative and Reform (ECR) groups stated that Member States should be allowed to formulate policy on such questions for themselves.

The resolution reads: “The formulation and implementation of policies on sexual and reproductive health and rights and on sex education in schools is a competence of the member states.”

The vote was welcomed by European Dignity Watch (EDW), a Brussels-based pro-life group, who said the result was “a historic setback for the abortion lobby”.

In a statement following the vote, EDW said that the vote demonstrated that European citizens were “no longer willing to be dictated an agenda that goes against their profound convictions”.

The resolution had also attacked the right of doctors to conscientiously object to facilitating abortions, and claimed that adolescents have a “right to confidentiality” as regards ‘sexual and reproductive health’ implying that parents have no right to be informed.

Introduced by Portuguese socialist MEP Edite Estrela, and adopted by the Committee on “Women’s Rights and Gender Equality”, the resolution had been sent back to the Committee in October having been rejected by the Parliament.

Vicky Claeys, President of the European Section of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) had publicly claimed to have drafted the resolution during the presentation to the European Parliament of an IPPF report on women’s access to modern methods of contraception.

This resolution had also called on the European Union to fund abortion in its Foreign and Development Aid Policy.

The resolution condemns “the abuse of conscientious objection” in relation to abortion and calls on Member States to “regulate and monitor the use of conscientious objection”.

It also condemns “medically unnecessary waiting periods” that is to say a period of reflection between the request for an abortion and the abortion itself and what it calls “overly restrictive interpretations of existing limits” to abortion in Ireland, Malta and Poland.

The resolution also falsely claims that abortion is a human right guaranteed by international law.