| Author (Person) | Banks, Martin |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.8, No.8, 28.2.02, p6 |
| Publication Date | 28/02/2002 |
| Content Type | News |
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Date: 28/02/02 By THE European Union has been urged to take health issues 'more seriously' in order for it to tackle wide differences in the availability and quality of treatment across the member states. Campaigners say some of the most critical disparities relate to access to abortion, emergency contraception and HIV infection rates. Lyn Thomas, regional director of the International Planned Parent-hood Federation European Network (IPPF), told a conference in Brussels this week: 'Abortion is available to women in Ireland only if they have been raped or if their lives are deemed to be at risk. 'This resulted in 6,500 women travelling to the UK last year to have an abortion. 'The situation is similar in Spain and Portugal, but in most other EU countries abortion is widely available and women do not have to have a reason.' Thomas added: 'The EU needs to make the law more equitable. In this day and age it is totally unreasonable for women to have to travel from one European country to another to receive what is, after all, a basic right such as an abortion.' She also voiced concern that the statistics relating to rates of HIV infection indicated a lack of sex education in countries such as Portugal, where 372 people per million of the population are infected with the virus. The country also has the highest percentage of people with full-blown AIDS in the EU. In contrast, only 19 people per million are infected with the HIV virus in Germany where advice on sex issues is more readily available. Thomas said the member states could learn from each other. For example, the UK - which she describes as 'hardly a shining light when it comes to teenage pregnancies' - could improve in this area by promoting policies that had proved successful in the Netherlands. That country has the lowest rate of teenage abortion anywhere in the Union.
The European Union has been urged to take health issues 'more seriously' in order for it to tackle wide differences in the availability and quality of treatment across the Member States. |
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| Subject Categories | Health |
