In a groundbreaking decision, France has enshrined the right to abortion in its Constitution, a world first welcomed by women’s rights groups as historic and harshly criticised by anti-abortion groups.
MPs and senators overwhelmingly backed the move, by 780 votes against 72, in a special joint vote of the two houses of Parliament at Versailles Palace.
Abortion rights activists gathered in central Paris cheered and applauded as the Eiffel Tower displayed the message “MyBodyMyChoice” as the result of the vote was announced on a giant screen.
Abortion rights are more widely accepted in France than many other countries, with polls showing around 80% of French people back the fact that abortion is legal, reports Reuters.
“Your body belongs to you and no one can decide for you,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal told lawmakers before the vote.
Women have had a legal right to abortion in France since a 1974 law, which many harshly criticised at the time.
But the US Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to reverse the Roe v Wade ruling that recognised women’s constitutional right to abortion prompted activists to push France to become the first country to explicitly protect the right in its basic law.
The vote enshrined in Article 34 of the French Constitution states “the law determines the conditions in which a woman has the guaranteed freedom to have recourse to an abortion”.
However, the decision was not exempt from criticism.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said President Emmanuel Macron was using it to score political points, because of the large support for the right to abortion in the country, while Pascale Moriniere, president of the Association of Catholic Families, called the move a defeat for anti-abortion campaigners.
“It’s (also) a defeat for women,” she said, “and, of course, for all the children who cannot see the day.”
She said there was no need to add the right to abortion to the Constitution.
“We imported a debate that is not French, since the United States was first to remove that from law with the repeal of Roe v Wade,” she said. “There was an effect of panic from feminist movements, which wished to engrave this on the marble of the constitution.”
Reuters article – France puts right to abortion in its Constitution, a world first (Open access)
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