Activities of Mónica Silvana GONZÁLEZ related to 2020/2215(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the situation of sexual and reproductive health and rights in the EU, in the frame of women’s health
Amendments (14)
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Recital 1 e (new)
Recital 1 e (new)
1e. whereas the SRHR services are essential healthcare services that should be available to all and include inter alia: comprehensive sexuality education and information, confidential and unbiased counselling and services for sexual and reproductive health and well-being; counselling and access to a wide range of modern contraceptives; antenatal, childbirth and postnatal care; midwifery; obstetric and new-born care; safe and legal abortion services and care and post- abortion care including treatment of complications of unsafe abortion; the prevention and treatment of HIV and other STIs; services aimed at detecting, preventing and treating sexual and gender-based violence; prevention, detection and treatment for reproductive cancers, especially cervical cancer; fertility care and fertility treatment;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Reaffirms that sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are grounded in human rights, are fundamental elements of human dignity, and remain crucial to achieving gender equality and promoting women’s rights; calls on the EU to guarantee universal respect for, and access to, SRHR as agreed in the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome documents of the review conferences thereof acknowledging that they contribute to the achievement of all health-related SDGs;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Calls upon the Member States to address the persisting challenges in accessing or exercising SRHR in Europe and globally and to ensure that all persons have access to high-quality and affordable SRHR services and that no one is left behind by being unable to exercise their right to health; Stresses that equal access to SRHR must be ensured for all persons, regardless of age, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, bodily diversity, race, ethnicity, class, caste, religious affiliation and beliefs, marital status, socio- economic status, disability, HIV (or STI) status, national and social origin, legal and migration status, language;
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1c. Calls upon Member States to ensure that the COVID-19 pandemic does not affect the right of all individuals to SRHR services and to ensure they are secured through the public health systems, and combat all efforts directed on using the pandemic as a pretext to further restrict SRHR;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Calls for the elimination of harmful practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM) and early and forced child marriage; is extremely concerned that more than 200 million girls and women worldwide have been forced to undergo FGM; calls for full access to physical and psychological care by interculturally sensitive and trained personnel; recalls FGM is internationally recognised as a human rights violation, estimates show there are 125 million victims worldwide and 500,000victims in the EU alone; calls for improving data collection and assisting the World Health Organisation (WHO), NGOs and other organisations active in the elimination of FGM; calls for far reaching efficient education and information campaigns for elimination of the FGM within and outside Europe; calls for full access to physical and psychological care by intercultural sensitive and trained personnel; urges all EU countries to ratify the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and reiterated calls to incorporate FGM prevention measures in all policy areas, especially in health, asylum, education, employment and in cooperation and human rights dialogues with third countries; urges to all EU countries to protect victims and end impunity by including a principle of extra-territoriality to make possible to prosecute FGM when it is committed abroad, as families often take their daughters to their country of origin to have them mutilated;
Amendment 35 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Condemns any violations of SRHR, including failures to provide access to comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), family planning services and maternal healthcare, maternal healthcare and safe and legal abortion services; calls for the realisation of Agenda 2030 and all relevant SDGs to health, education, and gender equality;
Amendment 45 #
4. Insists that CSE programmes are important as they provide age-appropriate information about puberty, the menstrual cycle, pregnancy and, childbirth and HIV&AIDS prevention and treatment; recalls the role of non-governmental organisations as service providers and advocates for SRHR; underlines that CSE programmes help prevent early pregnancy and marriage, which lead to girls dropping out of school; recalls the impact of COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown in the closing of schools and isolating women and girls, rising significantly abusive relationships, including increasing physical violence early pregnancy and marriage and limiting access to support and health services; calls for the EU to foster CSE, family planning services and maternal healthcare as an strategic axe in its support to healthcare and social systems in partner countries within the EU’s Global Response to COVID-19;
Amendment 54 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Recalls that safe and legal abortion care is anchored in women’s health and rights; warns about the worrying backlash on women’s rights over their bodies in both developing countries and the EU; recalls that, following data reported by the WHO, approximately 45% of all abortions worldwide were unsafe, almost all of these unsafe abortions took place in developing countries, around 7 million women are admitted to hospitals every year in developing countries as a result of unsafe abortion, and almost every abortion death and disability could be prevented through sexuality education, use of effective contraception, provision of safe, legal induced abortion, and timely care for complications; calls for removing barriers to accessing safe abortion, such as, restrictive laws, poor availability of services, high cost and stigma; recalls that every country analysed by the 2019 Contraception Atlas needs to do more to improve access to information and contraceptive supplies so that people have a choice over their reproductive lives; stresses the need for the full implementation of the Maputo Protocol, especially Article 14 and the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action;
Amendment 62 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls for the Gender Action Plan III to give more prominence to its SRHR thematic policy area given the tremendous impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women and girls in developing countries, and address the limited access to SRHR of the most disadvantaged women, such as women with disabilities, indigenous and women belonging to minorities and women refugees; calls on the EU and the Member States to prepare “country-level implementation plans” prioritising SRHR, applying measurable indicators and monitoring mechanisms, and further requests EU Delegations to support civil society organisations and women’ movements asking for a legal safe and free abortion;
Amendment 73 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on the EU to secure adequate and well-targeted funding for SRHR in its development cooperation policy and external action instruments, such as the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument; requests to include a gender-equality perspective in the EU and Member States’ humanitarian aid response, and a perspective on SRHR, as access to sexual and reproductive healthcare is a basic need for people in humanitarian settings;
Amendment 89 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Calls upon Member States to counter discrimination in SRHR services and use an intersectional approach to make sure that women and girls, with or without trans experience, non-binary persons, lesbian, bisexual and intersex women have equal access to SRH services and rights;
Amendment 90 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Calls upon Member States to work towards an EU wide and global ban of so called conversion therapy as it is a harmful practice that violates the fundamental rights of LBTI women and girls;
Amendment 94 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Reiterates its call on both parties of the new agreement between the EU and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP), the Post- Cotonou Agreement, as well as on both parties of the EU-Africa Strategy and the EU and Latin American Countries Stratesgic Partnership, to commit to the promotion, protection and fulfilment of SRHR free from discrimination, coercion and violence and to the full implementation of the International Conference on Population and Development’s Programme of Action;
Amendment 104 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Recalls that asylum seekers and refugees are too often victims of human trafficking, sexual violence and forced prostitution; insists that access to SRHR for these populations is critical for their survival.