Approximately 200 delegates from 17 European countries representing women's rights organisations, political parties, trade unions, health insurance funds, SRHR partner organisations, including the European Parliament and the Council of Europe, came together on 19-20 September, in Paris, for the European Conference on the Right to abortion: "What is at stake for women in Europe?"

IPPF Member Association of France, le Mouvement Français pour Le Planning Familial (MFPF), took the opportunity of the French Presidency of the European Union to organize this major event in partnership with CADAC (Coordination Nationale d'Associations pour le Droit à l'Avortement et à la Contraception), ANCIC (Association Nationale des Centres d’Interruption de Grossesse et de Contraception), IPPF EN and the European Women’s Lobby.

The focus of the Conference was the right to abortion in the European Union, legal and socio- economical obstacles to abortion rights and strategies to promote this right.

The Conference was attended by the IPPF EN Regional Director, the Advocacy Officer and the IPPF Member Associations from Belgium, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

The partners that organised the conference agreed on a final declaration and called all participants and interested parties to join forces and show their firm commitment for the future.

The declaration affirms the right of a woman over her own body as a fundamental principle. It stresses that it is essential to enable women to live in a more equal, just and democratic society.

Furthermore it calls all feminist organisations, associations and NGOs, decision makers at all levels, trade unions, youth activists to be vigilant and support the recognition of a women's right to abortion. This means that every woman should be able to find a solution in the country where she resides and should not be obliged to travel or to resort to illegal and potentially unsafe abortion at home.  

A number of commitments have been made in the Declaration in relation to the follow-up of the conference such as the establishing of a network of like-minded organisations and the drafting of an action plan which will be developed in the next 3 months.

The Declaration has also been officially handed out to the representatives of IPPF Member Associations of Sweden and the Czech Republic to be used with their governments during their presidencies of the EU.