Changes from plenary report to adopted text

U. whereas the digitalisation of healthcare and the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) risk reinforcing existing gender and racial biases; whereas these biases, stemming from non-representative datasets, can cause AI tools to downplay female medical symptoms; whereas sex- and gender-disaggregated data should be used to train AI in healthcare to enable it to recognise critical differences in disease progression, symptoms and drug metabolism between men and women;

V. whereas European health industries require innovation-friendly regulation, strong intellectual property protection and open but strategic trade in order to be resilient and competitive and to benefit women, both as patients and workers;

W. whereas according to the World Health Organization (WHO), global health challenges, including infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance and climate-related health threats, have differentiated impacts on women and girls; whereas people in low- and middle-income countries face disproportionate gender inequalities in health compared to high-income countries in terms of mortality and serious morbidity, notably related to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR);

X. whereas cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the EU, with a higher mortality rate among women than men, despite prevailing societal misconceptions; whereas these perceptions contribute to lower levels of risk awareness among women and healthcare professionals and lower rates of participation in cardiovascular screenings; whereas cardiovascular disease risk assessment models frequently overlook most gender-specific biological, social and psychosocial factors, such as hypertension, diabetes, gynaecological history, early menopause, intimate partner violence, socio-economic status and chronic stress, thereby contributing to women’s vulnerability to ischemic heart disease and delayed diagnosis and treatment; whereas improving awareness, training and diagnosis of sex-specific cardiovascular symptoms is essential to ensure timely treatment, reduce avoidable health risks for women and strengthen the effectiveness of prevention and healthcare systems;

Z. whereas full, effective and universal access to SRHR, including comprehensive, age-appropriate and science-based sexuality and relationship education, affordable and high-quality contraception, fertility care and safe and legal abortion services, is a fundamental pillar of gender equality, social justice, bodily integrity, privacy and personal autonomy, and is essential to countering disinformation and stigma and ensuring the dignity, health and equal participation of women and girls in all areas of life; whereas despite some progress, in practice, sexual and reproductive health services and access to related information remain partially unavailable in some Member States; whereas the lack of systematic data collection and insufficient disaggregated data on SRHR make it difficult to develop effective policies and address inequalities, particularly for women in vulnerable situations;

AA. whereas more than 20 million women in the EU still do not have access to safe and legal abortion services, as several Member States maintain harmful and discriminatory regulatory and procedural barriers; whereas the European Citizen’s Initiative entitled ‘My Voice, My Choice’ was a direct call from EU citizens for the EU to ensure access to safe and legal abortion services for all while respecting the division of competences under the Treaties; whereas the unmet need for contraception undermines bodily autonomy and global sustainable development, with unintended pregnancies accounting for approximately half of all pregnancies worldwide each year;

AB. whereas Parliament has voted on several occasions to strengthen and protect the right to abortion, including in texts on the European Citizens’ Initiative entitled ‘My Voice, My Choice’, the Gender Equality Strategy 2026-2030, and its recommendation to the Council concerning the EU priorities for the 69th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women;

AC. whereas 14 % of LGBTIQ+ people have reported experiencing discrimination in healthcare settings; whereas many Member States provide only limited and unaffordable access to transition-related healthcare;

AD. whereas sexually transmitted infections (STIs) disproportionately affect women and continue to surge across the EU, while a lack of data and significant barriers to preventative measures and testing are hindering efforts to curb the epidemics of chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis;

3. Stresses that health is a shared concern across the EU and that full respect for the principle of subsidiarity and Member States’ responsibility for organising their health systems should not prevent coordinated action; highlights that coordinated EU action strengthens resilience, ensures continuity of care during crises, reduces inequalities between Member States and guarantees that citizens’ health rights are effectively protected; underlines that women make up just over half of the population in the EU and the majority of the health and care workforce, and that EU-level cooperation is essential to ensure equitable access to gender-responsive health services, including sexual and reproductive health services, maternal care and prevention and treatment of female-prevalent conditions; calls for a more effective use of cross-border cooperation to deliver clear added value, such as access to specialised care and expertise on rare diseases;

4. Highlights that inequalities in healthcare are compounded by intersectional inequalities and discrimination, including those linked to gender, age, socio-economic status, disability, race or geographical location and those experienced by people from ethnic minorities, refugee, migrant and LGBTIQ+ communities, survivors of gender-based violence and women deprived of their liberty; stresses that employment, housing and income insecurities, as well as unpaid care responsibilities, deepen gender inequalities in health and limit access to timely, quality and affordable care; points out that inequalities are also evident in gender-specific conditions, as research into these conditions has been repeatedly undervalued and underfunded; notes that stigma, the visibility of symptoms and cultural perceptions of disease can further exacerbate barriers to timely diagnosis and care for women;

5. Deplores the fact that universal access to healthcare services across the EU has not yet been achieved; emphasises, in particular, the need for an intersectional approach to remove barriers to access faced by vulnerable women and girls, including women with disabilities, women from disadvantaged backgrounds and those living in institutional settings; calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote greater harmonisation of access to healthcare across the Member States, with full respect for their competencies, and to ensure affordable, high-quality healthcare for all; stresses that access to healthcare should never be impeded by ignorance, bias or stigma; calls for targeted measures to ensure accessible, inclusive and culturally and gender-sensitive healthcare and stresses the need to address these barriers to timely diagnosis and treatment;

6. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to address geographical disparities in accessing healthcare, which particularly affect women in rural and remote areas, islands and outermost regions, through coordination, funding and knowledge-sharing mechanisms at EU level; urges the Member States to tackle transport-related barriers to accessing healthcare by integrating a gender perspective into health infrastructure planning, including through the development of mobile healthcare units, telemedicine solutions and accessible public transport connections to healthcare facilities;

17. Stresses that the lack of systematic collection of disaggregated data undermines the development of effective, evidence-based policies, including on sexual and reproductive health, and that an exposome approach to research is required; calls for improved collection, harmonisation and use of sex- and gender-disaggregated data, as well as intersectional data, in all areas of health policy, research and innovation, and pilot projects across the EU; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that a strong gender perspective is incorporated into the implementation of the European Health Data Space;

18. Commends the work of the EIGE in strengthening the evidence base on women’s health, including through the integration of health-related indicators into the Gender Equality Index; underlines that the EIGE’s research provides clear European added value by improving data comparability, supporting evidence-based policymaking and enabling more targeted, effective and proportionate EU and national policies;

Diagnostics and treatment

19. Highlights the fact that as a result of systemic underfunding and a lack of research, diagnostic methods and treatments remain male-centric, which can lead to substandard and higher-risk treatment for women, transgender and gender-diverse people, including through a lack of necessary, evidence-, science-based and comprehensive healthcare and the dismissal of pain and symptoms, leading to delayed diagnoses for women and transgender and intersex individuals;

20. Urges the medical profession to apply a precision-medicine approach to treatment, in order to complement any measures taken to reduce inequality and increase investment in medical research; calls on the Member States to establish pilot programmes on gender-sensitive healthcare, notably in areas where programmes are non-existent or severely lacking, such as menstrual, perimenopausal, cardiovascular and mental health; points out that fears of misconceptions, misinterpretation of symptoms, judgement and stigmatisation can discourage women from seeking timely medical advice, resulting in avoidable complications and poorer long-term outcomes; calls for measures to be taken to change misperceptions among medical professionals and to address public misconceptions; calls for multidisciplinary collaboration in women’s healthcare to gain a better understanding of gendered health conditions and corresponding gaps in treatment;

22. Calls on the Commission to encourage the exchange of best practice and knowledge on how the healthcare workforce can be better trained and more attentive to sex- and gender-responsive healthcare; calls for the establishment of a European Reference Network (ERN) on women’s health, building on the model of existing ERNs for rare diseases, to strengthen research collaboration, improve clinical practice and ensure that women’s specific health needs are systematically addressed across the EU;

23. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that healthcare systems are equipped to prevent, identify and respond to gender-based violence and to the specific needs of women and girls in vulnerable situations, including through gender-sensitive, patient-centred, trauma-informed care and access to emergency contraception; calls on the Member States to establish clear pathways between health services, social services, and specialised support services for victims and survivors of gender-based violence, in line with Directive 2024/1385 on combating violence against women and domestic violence and the revision of Directive 2012/29 establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime;

24. Emphasises that harmful practices such as female genital mutilation, forced abortion, forced sterilisation, the denial of abortion care, intersex genital mutilation, obstetric and gynaecological violence, and malpractice in medical settings are forms of gender-based violence; expresses concern about medically unnecessary treatments, often carried out without informed consent, which particularly affect intersex women, as well as coercive medical interventions, such as forced sterilisation, which remain a reality for women with disabilities in the EU; deplores the fact that, despite its commitment under the Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025, the Commission has failed to publish its recommendation on the prevention of harmful practices against women and girls; urges the Commission to do so swiftly; stresses that this recommendation must complement Directive (EU) 2024/1385; calls for the establishment of independent complaint, reporting and accountability mechanisms and data collection systems in this regard;

25. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to recognise, prevent and address gynaecological and obstetric violence, including non-consensual, abusive or coercive medical procedures, verbal abuse, discrimination, dismissive treatment, such as delaying the treatment of or refusing to acknowledge women’s reproductive health concerns, and violations of bodily autonomy in gynaecological and obstetric care, as a form of gender-based violence and denial of women’s rights; notes that examples of gynaecological violence include the performance of perineal or episiotomy cuts during childbirth without explicit consent or informed agreement, and routine dismissal of women’s reported pain or symptoms in the context of reproductive health; notes the severe impacts that such violence may have on women’s and intersex people’s physical, mental and social health; deplores the fact that, despite recent EU literature on the existence and reality of violence in gynaecological and obstetric settings, the Commission has not explicitly recognised obstetric and gynaecological violence as a form of gender-based violence; urges the Commission to establish clear legal definitions and prevention strategies, in this regard; calls on the Member States to explicitly recognise and combat all forms of obstetric and gynaecological violence;

26. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote respectful maternity care and to establish complaint mechanisms, data collection and training for healthcare professionals, regarding obstetric violence;

27. Calls for mandatory training for healthcare professionals, emergency responders and law enforcement authorities on identifying, responding to and documenting cases of gender-based violence, including female genital mutilation, in a sex- and gender-responsive and victim-centred manner;

28. Underlines that prevention-focused health policies particularly benefit women, reducing long-term healthcare costs and enabling higher labour-market participation; calls on the Commission and the Member States to introduce ambitious targets for the screening of cancer and other relevant diseases, such as osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease; urges the Member States to recognise and fully exploit the benefits of prophylactic medicinal products, but emphasises that further research into lactose-free prophylactics is required; draws particular attention to the need for early-detection and preventive screening programmes for women with disabilities, with a view to preventing additional health complications;

29. Underscores the persistent gender care gap, namely the fact that women disproportionately perform both informal and formal care work, which increases their exposure to a range of health challenges, including mental health challenges; underlines the importance of promoting a fair and equal distribution of caregiving responsibilities; stresses that informal carers should be granted greater support, including financial, mental and peer support, as well as flexible work arrangements and care leave;

30. Warns that women’s health medicines are not adequately prioritised in EU efforts to protect against shortages and supply disruptions, despite routine shortages of abortion medicine and contraception, among others, in Member States; calls on the Council to align with Parliament’s proposal to recognise abortifacient and contraceptive medicinal products as medicinal products of common interest in the Critical Medicines Act; calls on the Council to consider these products for inclusion in the next revision of the EU list of critical medicines; calls for the forthcoming Critical Medicines Act to integrate a gender-sensitive approach, ensuring that the identification and prioritisation of critical medicines reflect the specific healthcare needs of women in all their diversity;

31. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to strengthen measures to protect women and girls from harmful chemical exposure, recognising that women are disproportionately affected due to biological, social and occupational factors; notes that chemicals in everyday products, including cosmetics, menstrual products and household items, can disrupt hormonal systems, increase risks of conditions such as breast cancer and endometriosis and the risks of fertility problems, and can affect foetal development during pregnancy;

Mental health

32. Urges the Commission to take mental health and its gender-related challenges into account in all relevant healthcare-related measures; stresses that, due to biological and social factors, including the gender pay, pension and care gaps, women are more likely to develop certain mental health conditions, such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and eating disorders, and report higher rates of depression and psychological distress than men; highlights the strong interconnection between physical health conditions and mental health outcomes in women; notes that certain chronic, recurrent or visible health conditions are subject to stigma, and are frequently associated with anxiety, depression and social withdrawal;

33. Stresses the need for integrated care approaches that address both physical symptoms and mental well-being, and the need to integrate mental healthcare into the diagnosis and treatment of gender-specific conditions, including into maternal and post-partum health; stresses the need for research on the mental health outcomes of different parental leave models; calls for proportionate, evidence-based action to be taken at EU level to complement national strategies, including by ensuring access to appropriate psychological, psychiatric and nutritional care, as well as increasing access to mental health services for girls and young women; calls on the Commission to take the gender dimension into account in the implementation of the initiatives outlined in its communication of 7 June 2023 on a comprehensive approach to mental health;