France becomes world’s first country to enshrine abortion rights in constitution
Paris —
After a campaign that started in direct response to the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, France became the first nation in history to codify abortion rights in its constitution on Monday.
The proposal was comfortably approved by lawmakers in both chambers of the French Parliament, with a vote of 780 to 72 in favor, meeting the necessary three-fifths majority to change the French constitution.
The last stage of the parliamentary procedure was the voting on Monday, which took place at the Palace of Versailles, southwest of Paris, during a special assembly of legislators. The legislation was overwhelmingly passed earlier this year by the French National Assembly and Senate.
According to the amendment, abortion is a “guaranteed freedom” in France. Legislators and certain groups had pushed for tougher wording that would clearly designate abortion as a “right.”
Hailed by lawmakers as a historic step, the measure demonstrated France’s unwavering support for reproductive rights at a time when abortion rights are under attack in the US and in regions of Europe like Hungary where far-right parties are gaining ground.
“My body, my choice” was illuminated on the Eiffel Tower after the results of the vote.
Before the vote, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal stated that MPs owed women who had previously been compelled to undergo illegal abortions a “moral debt.”
Above all, Attal stated, “we are sending a message to all women: your body belongs to you.”
On Friday, International Women’s Rights Day, the government will celebrate the amendment’s passing with an official ceremony, according to French President Emmanuel Macron.
After a campaign spearheaded by Simone Veil, the then-health minister and survivor of Auschwitz who rose to prominence as one of the nation’s most well-known feminist heroines, France legally legalized abortion in 1975.
In US politics, abortion is a very contentious issue that frequently splits people along party lines, whereas in France, it is mostly accepted. Many legislators who voted against the amendment did so because they believed it superfluous, given the broad support for reproductive rights, rather than because they were against abortion.
The French left, which has been agitating for years for the constitution to protect abortion rights, has won a resounding win with the approval of the bill. Like the amendment’s present opponents, President Emmanuel Macron’s administration said that the action was needless prior to 2022.
But France was forced to take action in 2022 after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed individual states to make their own decisions about the matter.
Prior to the January debate in the National Assembly, French Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti stated that history was replete with instances in which “fundamental rights” were thought to be secure but were later violated, “as we were recently reminded by the decision of the US Supreme Court.”
He declared, “We now have indisputable evidence that no democracy, not even the biggest of them all, is immune.”
With the passage of the vote, the French government has now changed the constitution 25 times since the Fifth Republic was established in 1958.
Among the few organizations to declare its opposition to the amendment was the Catholic Church. “In the era of universal human rights, there can be no ‘right’ to take human life,” declared the Pontifical Academy for Life, a Vatican organization that studies bioethical matters.
Prior to the decision, a gathering of French bishops on Thursday reaffirmed the church’s opposition to abortion.