How 1.2 million EU citizens are standing up against the right-wing anti-gender movement
Dear friends!
This Wednesday (5 November 2025), we supported the demands of over 1.2 million EU citizens for safe access to abortion throughout the EU in a separate resolution in the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM). With 26 votes in favour and 12 against, we were able to form a coalition of democratic parties in the committee, fortunately with the conservatives and Christian democrats of the EPP group.
Specifically, the resolution was all about the demands of the European Citizens’ Initiative ‘My Voice, My Choice’, which in September officially exceeded the required number of one million signatures with 1,224,998 and was recognised as successful by the European Commission. In this citizens’ initiative, groups from all over Europe have joined forces behind one demand:
“We want everyone in the EU to be able to have access to safe abortion care, no matter who they are or where they come from.”
Because more than 20 million women in Europe do not have access to abortion. This has fatal consequences not only for women’s health, but also for their family and economic situation:
“It is unacceptable that women are still dying in Poland today because of this. That women suffer financially because abortion is not free. That women are forced to travel long distances or seek unsafe alternatives because of a lack of providers.”
Now it is up to the EU Commission to listen to the demands and implement them. The hearing will take place on 2 December 2025. With this week’s additional decision in the FEMM Committee, we are increasing the pressure on the EU Commission even before the actual hearing. Looking at the fate of past citizen initiatives, this extra pressure is urgently needed. Whether it’s ‘Farm to Fork’ or ‘Minority SafePack’, the European Commission has done little to implement the ECIs in recent years.
The right-wing anti-gender movement
The FEMM’s decision is then expected to be brought before the plenary session of the European Parliament in December. However, a majority is not certain there. One reason for this is that there is a powerful anti-gender movement with influence on many parties, MEPs and societies; a movement which is deliberately stirring up sentiment against women’s rights, against the rights of queer people and against the self-determination of all people.
This anti-gender movement is a central component of the Alt-Right’s strategy in its fight against democracy and for its supremacist worldview. This movement consists of many hundreds of organisations that use large amounts of money, mainly from Hungary, the USA and Russia, to stir up sentiment and undermine our fundamental rights.
But don’t just take my word for it: as recently as June 2025, the think tank ‘European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual & Reproductive Rights’ took a close look at the flow of money, donors and recipients in its study “The Next Wave: How Religious Extremism Is Regaining Power”. Follow the money across 180 pages. In June, I was on the podium at the official presentation. You can find the video with all the information here: https://youtu.be/X2WauTZOJtI?si=RwEVNb4ndPtRl-5C
If you want to know how the anti-gender movement works, who finances it and how it all fits into the strategy of the Alt-Right, you should take a look. Here is the most important information:
“Between 2019 and 2023, 275 organisations campaigning against gender initiatives in Europe received a total of US$1.18 billion in funding. Approximately 73% of these funds ($730 million) came from 27 countries in Europe, while the Russian Federation contributed 18% ($180 million) and US organisations spending money in Europe accounted for 9% ($90 million). The five countries with the highest anti-gender funding were Hungary ($172.2 million), France ($165.7 million), the United Kingdom ($156 million), Poland ($90.7 million) and Spain ($66.4 million).”
It is also interesting to note that $108 million went to political parties, mainly from three sources: the Heritage Foundation in the US (Project 2025), Russian and French sources. The recipients also include two right-wing factions in the European Parliament, the ECR led by Giorgia Meloni and the Patriots led by Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz und Le Pen’s RN. With the ECR, EU Commission President von der Leyen and EPP leader Manfred Weber regularly form majorities to the right of the democratic centre of Parliament. When the plenary votes in December, it will become clear where the EPP stands.
What you can do: Write to the EPP MEPs and ask them to vote in favour of the FEMM Committee’s report on the citizens’ initiative ‘My Voice my Choice’. We know that this helps and has a big impact. You can find all EPP MEPs and their email addresses here: https://www.eppgroup.eu/who-we-are/our-members
The Alt-Right and anti-gender groups are part of a movement that receives billions in funding and systematically seeks to dismantle the fundamental rights of the many so that a few can become ever richer in their populist dystopia. Musk, Trump, Thiel, Bezos, the Koch brothers, you name them.
But despite their billions, the situation is not hopeless. The great success of the citizens’ initiative, as well as Mamdani’s success and that of the new Irish President Connolly, show that when people come together, courageously and with a positive vision that does not fuel resentment, political power is created – and the new right-wing billionaires lose. Please watch and share my video on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQtrp47DLLW
Thank you for your support in this fight. The last few days show that it is not yet lost.
With determined regards,
Yours, Alexandra Geese