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French lawmakers have enshrined access to abortion in the country’s constitution in a world first that supporters of the move say is necessary to prevent any future restrictions on reproductive rights.
On Monday, at the Palace of Versailles, a large majority of the two French parliamentary chambers historically voted to add a specific article to the Constitution that guarantees “freedom. . . of women to resort to voluntary termination of pregnancy”.
This language will make it much more difficult to restrict the right to abortion, as has happened in countries like the United States and Poland with the complicity of conservative governments, said Mélanie Vogel, a Green Party senator who co-led the initiative.
“The message is that France believes that a condition of a free and fair society is that women can choose what to do with their bodies,” she said in an interview.
Asked whether he fears the rise of the far right in France would lead to restrictions on access to abortion, he added that it was impossible to predict, so it was better to act now.
“If you see a truck speeding towards you, don’t wear your seat belt when it hits you. French public opinion is very attached to the right to abortion, so we have a window of time to do it now to avoid any regression.”
Abortion was made legal in France in 1975 on a proposal supported by health minister Simone Veil, a high-profile feminist politician who was honored with burial in the Panthéon in Paris after her death in 2017.
Women can undergo the procedure up to the 14th week of pregnancy with costs covered by national health insurance.
Making abortion a “guaranteed right” in the Constitution caps a decades-long push by feminist groups and women politicians, which took on new urgency when the U.S. Supreme Court in May 2022 overturned Roe vs. Wade, the ruling lawyer who had previously believed there was a constitutional right to abortion.
It was only then that President Emmanuel Macron reversed his previous position that adding the right to abortion to the Constitution was unnecessary and his government backed a proposal put forward by left-wing lawmakers, including Vogel.
The about-face was important because the procedure for changing the French constitution is much simpler if the executive supports it, requiring only a three-fifths majority in both houses of parliament instead of a more cumbersome national referendum.
The political surprise came last week when the most conservative chamber, the French Senate, voted in favor of the change – by 267 votes in favor to 50 against – despite some of its leaders saying they thought it was not a good idea. In January the National Assembly supported him by a wide margin of 493 to 30.
“Today France is a pioneer. . . and will tell the world that France is faithful to its legacy as the home of human rights and also, and above all, of women’s rights,” said Prime Minister Gabriel Attal in Versailles.
According to an Ipsos poll conducted in February, 78% of French people support adding the right to abortion to the Constitution to ensure it is protected in the future, with the figure rising to 86% among women.
None of France’s major political parties oppose the right to abortion.
Religious groups and the Catholic Church had opposed the constitutional change and expressed sadness at the outcome. CNews, a right-wing television channel controlled by conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré, made headlines last week when it broadcast a graph that listed abortion as the leading cause of mortality in the world, ahead of cancer and smoking. The channel later apologized for what it called an “unforgivable mistake.”
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has sometimes made ambiguous comments about the procedure, such as in 2012 when she criticized so-called “convenience abortions” and questioned whether national health insurance should cover them. In a 2006 book you wrote that “everything should be done” to reduce the number of abortions to a minimum.
But in January, Le Pen and 45 other deputies from her Rassemblement National party voted in favor of the constitutional change, while 12 opposed it and 14 abstained. The party’s three senators also supported the change.
“The president and his allies are trying to make it appear that abortion rights are in danger in France, but that is not the case,” he said Monday. “We will vote in favor of the change because it does not pose any particular problem, even if this is not a historic day, it is simply a day that Emmanuel Macron organized for his glory.”