8 Amendments of Vera TAX related to 2020/2215(INI)
Amendment 193 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J
Recital J
J. whereas some Member States still have highly restrictive laws prohibiting abortion except in strictly defined circumstances, forcing women to seek clandestine abortions, to travel to other countries or to carry their pregnancy to term against their will, which is a violation of human rights and a form of gender- based violence; affecting women’s and girls’ rights to life, physical and mental integrity, equality, non-discrimination, health, and freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment;
Amendment 201 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K
Recital K
K. whereas even when abortion is legally available, there are often barriers to accessing it; range of legal, quasi-legal and informal barriers to accessing it, including: limited time periods and grounds on which to access abortion, medically unwarranted waiting periods, lack of trained and willing healthcare professionals and denial of medical care based on personalbeliefs, biased and mandatory counselling, deliberate misinformation or third party authorization, medically unnecessary tests, distress requirements, costs and lack of reimbursement;
Amendment 221 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital M a (new)
Recital M a (new)
M a. whereas the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that there is a need to strengthen the resilience of health systems to such crises, with a specific focus on ensuring that SRH services continue to be fully available, that Member States do not instrumentalize the crisis to deprioritize or purposefully undermine access to these services;
Amendment 228 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N
Recital N
N. whereas progress has been made in the areas of women’s rights and SRHR, but opponents of reproductive rights have nonetheless had an influence on national law and policyopponents of sexual and reproductive rights and women’s autonomy have had a significant influence on national law and policy with retrogressive initiatives taken in several Member States, seeking to undermine SRHR, as noted by the Parliament in its resolutions on experiencing backlash in women’s rights and gender equality in the EU and Abortion Rights in Poland, and by the European Institute for Gender Equality in its report of 22 November 2019 on Beijing +25 – The 5th Review of the Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in the EU Member States; whereas these initiatives and backsliding obstruct the realisation of people’s rights, countries’ development and undermines European values, fundamental rights;
Amendment 242 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N c (new)
Recital N c (new)
N c. whereas there is a persisting effort to instrumentalize the COVID-19 health crisis as a pretext to adopt further restrictive measures in SRHR and that has a broad and long-term negative effect on the exercise of the fundamental right to health, gender equality andfight against discrimination and gender-based violence and is putting the well-being, health and lives of women and girls at risk;
Amendment 254 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Calls upon the EU, its bodies and agencies to support and promote access to SRHR services and calls upon the Member States to ensure access to a full range of SRHR, and to remove all barriers impeding full accessIn accordance with the principle of subsidiarity and in line with national competences, calls upon the Member States to safeguard the right of all persons to make their own informed choices with regard to SRHR;
Amendment 288 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Stresses the negative effects of the so-called “tampon tax” on gender equality; Calls upon the Member States to eliminate the so-called “tampon tax” by applying a 0% VAT rate on menstrual hygiene products and ensuring that this tax cut is effectively benefitting the consumers;
Amendment 490 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Calls upon the Commissioner for International Partnerships to uphold the European Consensus on Development and the SDGs, in particular targets 3.7,5.6 and 5.16, to ensure that SRHR remain a development priority in all EU external activities and relations, welcomes the strong language on SRHR in the new Gender Action Plan III, emphasises the need to prioritize the removal of all barriers in the access to SRHR services; calls upon the Commissioner for International Partnerships to strongly condemn the ‘global gag’ rule;