With 378 votes in favour, 255 against, and 42 abstentions, the European Parliament adopted on Thursday the resolution by Croatian MEP Predrag Matic on sexual and reproductive health which states that the right to sexual and reproductive health is a fundamental pillar of women’s rights and gender equality, the Parliament said in a press release.

Violations of women’s sexual and reproductive health rights are a form of violence against women and girls and hinder progress towards gender equality, the Parliament said, calling on EU countries to ensure women are offered high quality, comprehensive, and accessible sexual and reproductive health rights, and to remove all barriers impeding them from using these services.

“This vote marks a new era in the European Union and the first real resistance to a regressive agenda that has trampled on women’s rights in Europe for years,” said Matic, an MEP from the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group in the Parliament.

“A majority of MEPs have made their position clear to member states and called on them to ensure access to safe and legal abortion and a range of other sexual and reproductive health services,” he added.

The resolution, which was met with fierce opposition from conservative circles, appeals on EU countries to ensure sexuality education is taught comprehensively to primary and secondary school children, saying that such education can significantly contribute to reducing sexual violence and harassment.

Conservatives slammed the report, claiming it defined abortion as a human right, problematised the so-called conscientious objection – which allows doctors to refuse to perform procedures that go against their beliefs – but also that it infringes on the powers of EU member countries.

Croatian MEPs from the European People’s Party (EPP) voted against it, with Tomislav Sokol, member of the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) accusing Matic of “probably drafting the report under the influence of foreign lobbies which promote abortion.”

The Parliament rejected the alternative resolution drafted by the EPP.

In the resolution, the Parliament “recognises that for personal reasons, individual medical practitioners may invoke a conscience clause; (…) however, (…) an individual’s conscience clause may not interfere with a patient’s right to full access to healthcare and services.”

The Parliament “regrets that a sometimes common practice in Member States allows for medical practitioners, and on some occasions entire medical institutions, to refuse to provide health services on the basis of the so-called conscience clause, which leads to the denial of abortion care on grounds of religion or conscience, and which endangers women’s lives and rights.”

The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) also had a motion for resolution, and they demanded in a plenary session the day before that Matić’s report be removed from the agenda, which was not adopted.

Matic’s resolution was earlier approved by the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality by 27 votes in favour and six against.