The European Parliament has passed a motion calling for European Union member states to legalise abortion, and ensure that it is made available at the expense of taxpayers.

Three Irish MEPs - Proinsias De Rossa and Nessa Childers of Labour and Socialist party Joe Higgins voted in favour of the motion. While de Rossa and Higgins are long-time abortion advocates, Childers had denied during the recent EU election that she would support any EU interference in Irish abortion law.

Fianna Fáil's Brian Crowley and Labour's Alan Kelly were not present for the vote. All the other Irish MEPs voted against the motion.

The motion, drafted by Marc Tarabella, a Belgian Socialist MEP, on behalf of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, says women must have “easy access to contraception and abortion,” that they “must have access free of charge to consultation on abortion” and member states must “improve women’s access to sexual and reproductive health services.”

During the recent Lisbon referendum campaign, supporters of the treaty had argued that the EU would not attempt to interfere in Ireland’s abortion laws.