The European Commission has issued its formal response to the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) “My Voice My Choice: For Safe and Accessible Abortion”, which gathered more than 1.1 million signatures across the EU.The initiative is the twelfth to receive an official reply since the ECI mechanism was introduced in 2012, allowing citizens to directly influence the EU agenda.According to the World Health Organization, around 483,000 unsafe abortions occur in Europe each year. The Commission noted that unsafe abortions pose a public health risk, potentially leading to physical harm, severe mental stress and even loss of life.However, the Commission stressed that health policy, including abortion laws, remains primarily the responsibility of individual Member States under EU treaties.After analysing the initiative, the Commission said Member States can already rely on existing EU tools to improve access to legally available healthcare services, including abortion where permitted by national law.In particular, countries can use funding from the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) to support access to safe and affordable abortion services if they choose to do so voluntarily and in line with their domestic laws. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lovin Malta (@lovinmalta)This could include using or reallocating existing ESF+ resources to improve access to services for pregnant women. However, the Commission said there is no need to introduce a new legal instrument at EU level since support mechanisms already exist.The Commission noted that Member States wishing to use ESF+ funding for this purpose may need to amend their national or regional funding programmes.The European Citizens’ Initiative was introduced under the Lisbon Treaty as a way for citizens to push the Commission to consider legislative action. To qualify, an initiative must gather at least one million signatures from seven EU countries.Since 2012, 127 initiatives have been registered, with 14 reaching the one-million-signature threshold.The “My Voice, My Choice” initiative was submitted to the Commission in September 2025, calling for EU financial support to help ensure access to safe and legal abortion services across Europe, in line with national laws.•