EU states will be able to tap into a social fund to help citizens access safe abortions, in an announcement hailed as a “victory for women”.

The roots of Thursday’s announcement go back to a long campaign for the European Commission to create a funding mechanism that would allow women from countries with near-total bans on abortion, such as Malta and Poland, to go where it is legal.

At the heart of the My Voice, My Choice campaign was the assertion that women across the 27 member states should have equal access to legal, safe abortions.

More than 1.2 million people signed up to the initiative, forcing the commission to reply. The proposal was backed by a majority of MEPs in December.

The commission said countries would be able to draw on already allocated funds for social services to support travel and access to abortion care. “This is groundbreaking,” said Hadja Lahbib, the EU’s commissioner for equality. “This decision will change lives.”

The aim was to reduce the 500,000 unsafe abortions that took place in Europe every year, she said. “This is half a million women at risk, half a million women traumatised, half a million women who may carry lifelong consequences, and this is half a million too many,” added Lahbib.

“We live, of course, unfortunately, in a time when women’s bodies have become political battlefields, when rights are being rolled back around the world. But Europe is standing firm.”

The EU has seen a surge in support for far-right parties, many of which oppose abortion. Olivier Bault of Ordo Iuris, a Polish anti-abortion group that championed a near-blanket ban in 2020, told Reuters the EU announcement impinged on countries’ rights to set their own health policies.

“Using the European social fund, arguing that it can be used for healthcare purposes, means making a joke of Europeans’ national laws,” he said.

But Nika Kovač, the coordinator of the My Voice, My Choice campaign, said: “For the first time, the commission confirms unequivocally that EU funds can be used to guarantee access to safe abortion care ー particularly for women in vulnerable situations, regardless of where they come from in Europe.

“Today is a victory for women in Europe. This is not symbolic. It is a political commitment to women’s rights.”

While campaigners were disappointed that the commission had stopped short of allocating new financial resources, they embraced what they saw as a new path toward guaranteeing women’s rights. “Member states must now use the pathway that was created,” said Kovač.

Campaigners said their work was far from done, noting that they would continue to push the commission to provide additional, dedicated funding for abortions. They also called on the commission to be swift in providing clear instructions to member states on how they could access the funds and in creating a means for women to access the scheme across the bloc.

Manon Aubry, a leftwing French MEP, said: “We’re going to fight until not a single woman is dying in Europe because she cannot access abortion.”