“The European Parliament has missed an opportunity to focus seriously on the real health inequalities faced by women”, ECR Shadow Rapporteur Laurence Trochu said after Wednesday’s vote on gender inequalities in health.

Trochu opposed the adopted text, arguing that an initiative originally intended to address genuine and well-documented shortcomings in women’s healthcare had been turned into a vehicle for gender ideology and new EU-level obligations.

Trochu said:

“Women’s health is far too important to be turned into a vehicle for ideological language. We started with a real problem: women have too often been overlooked in medical research, diagnosis and treatment. Parliament had an opportunity to address that problem seriously. Instead, it allowed ideology to overshadow medicine.”

The ECR Group supports stronger research into medical conditions affecting women, better representation of women in clinical research and action to address delayed or incorrect diagnoses, including in areas such as cardiovascular disease, endometriosis and menopause.

Trochu criticised terminology in the report referring to concepts such as “gender diverse people” and “pregnant and breastfeeding individuals”, as well as requirements relating to sex- and gender-sensitive research.

“Pregnancy, menopause, endometriosis and cardiovascular disease are concrete medical realities affecting women. A report devoted to women’s health should have no difficulty saying so clearly. Pregnant women are women. Replacing them with abstract terms such as ‘pregnant individuals’ does nothing to improve research, diagnosis or treatment.”

Trochu said the ECR Group could have supported a report centred on better science, medical innovation, earlier diagnosis and improved treatment, but could not support the broader political direction taken by the final text.

“There was a serious report to be written here. We could have united around better research, better data, earlier diagnosis and better healthcare for women. Instead, Parliament chose to add gender concepts and new political obligations that have little to do with solving the medical problems women actually face.”

The report is a non-legislative own-initiative report from Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality. The European Parliament adopted it by 390 votes to 218, with 29 abstentions.