[4][5] At the time the report was proposed, Ireland, Malta, and Poland were the only European Union countries with severe restrictions on abortion, allowing it only in cases of risk to a woman's life or not at all.
[2][3][6] The report was drafted by Portuguese MEP Edite Estrela of the Socialist Party, who stated that the purpose of the resolution was to underline that people ought to be able to make "their own informed and responsible choices on their sexual and reproductive life".
A number of social conservative and anti-abortion lobby groups, many of them newly formed, were vocal in their opposition to the report, including CitizenGo.
[5][8] The floor debate was described as "acrimonious";[3] a failed resolution of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy group would have recommended providing information about "natural family planning", "post-abortion trauma" and encouraging young people to form relationships with the opposite sex.
[13] Following the rejection of the report, Austrian MEP Hannes Swoboda, then president of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, criticized the "misleading and demagogical campaign" in opposition.