Budapest, Hungary, Feb 23, 2007 / 10:08 am

Pro-lifers are claiming that the EU is putting pressure on countries to abandon their pro-life laws and to comply with a pro-abortion agenda.

Biblical Family Advocates said it learned recently that the EU is putting pressure on countries to abandon their pro life laws. The group cites the article, “EU Threatens to Withdraw Aid to Nicaragua if Pro-Life Law Remains,” to claim that the EU is putting pressure on a country that receives aid from it.

“I was also amazed recently that the country of Malta, an EU member country, was feeling pressure from the EU and the UN to abandon their pro life laws,” said Phil Magnan of Biblical Family Advocates.

The pro-life groups say the EU’s recent actions run counter to messages they received from EU representative Ralf von Ameln, directorate-general of education and culture, during a meeting Dec. 7. The meeting included representatives from United for Life, Schreeeuw om Leven, (Cry for Life), a pro life advocacy group based in the Netherlands, Operation Outcry, and Biblical Family Advocates.

In a press release, the pro-life groups say that Von Ameln assured them that the EU would not force countries whose laws forbid abortion and same-sex marriage to change their laws. He also assured that the EU would not override its member nations’ laws banning abortion as the United States Supreme Court had done when it overrode the laws of all 50 states in Roe v Wade.

EU Commissioner Gunther Verheugen, in an article dated October 2002, “EU Commissioner promises Malta EU won’t push abortion ever”, stated that the EU had no jurisdiction over abortion or similar issues and this position was "definite, absolute and forever".

Verheugen reportedly "assured Malta's Archbishop Joseph Mercieca .... that the European Union would never take jurisdiction over abortion. The Times of Malta reports that Verheugen stressed that the EU would never tell Malta or any other member state to legislate in favor of abortion."

The pro-life group noted that the EU passed a pro-abortion resolution in 2002. Pro-lifers say they wonder if that resolution was meant to create the future environment to force member states to abandon their pro-life laws. Magnan wonders if the EU can be trusted.

Pro-lifers are asking the EU to explain its recent actions.