During a joint session of Parliament at the Palace of Versailles, French parliamentarians passed a bill that would codify the right to an abortion in the country’s Constitution.
On Monday, the law was passed by a resounding 780–72 majority, and almost the whole joint session broke out into prolonged applause.
Following a restriction of abortion rights in US court judgments, women’s rights campaigners celebrated the measure that President Emmanuel Macron had pledged across the nation.
Almost 70 million women become pregnant unintentionally each year.1. The effects of these pregnancies will differ greatly based on a number of variables, including the health of the mother, her connections with her family, her financial situation, and the accessibility of medical treatment. These together with further
Her choice to seek an abortion or carry a pregnancy to term will be influenced by several variables. The pregnant lady is the only one qualified to make this decision because of how complicated it is.
Governments ought to uphold a woman’s human right to control her reproductive choices. When a woman chooses to end her pregnancy, as 46 million women do each year2, she needs to have access to the resources and assistance that will allow her to do so safely. Women who get abortions are penalized for using their fundamental rights. When a woman may only choose to end a pregnancy by accepting a significant risk to her life and health, these rights are no less violated.
France becomes the first nation in the world whose fundamental legislation explicitly protects pregnancy termination.
A measure to alter Article 34 of the constitution to clarify that a woman’s right to an abortion is protected has already been approved by the National Assembly and the Senate, both chambers of Parliament.
The proposal was made by French President Emmanuel Macron in response to the US Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to restrict abortion rights.
The French Constitution’s Article 34 has been suggested to be modified by the Elysee Palace to clarify “the law determines the conditions by which is exercised the freedom of women to have resources to an abortion, which is guaranteed.”
At Versailles, a congress including both chambers convened, and the legislators granted it the supermajority of three out of five votes required to amend the constitution.
The right-leaning Senate had first opposed the Bill. Nonetheless, since France decriminalized abortion in 1975, not a single major political party represented in parliament has raised any concerns about the right to an abortion.
Yael Braun-Pivet, the leader of the lower house of parliament, declared at the start of the joint meeting that “France is at the forefront.”
Criticism
Leaders of the far-right, such as Marine Le Pen, and anti-abortion organizations also criticized the vote.
Macron, according to Le Pen, was exploiting the law to further his political agenda.
“We have no issue with that, so we will vote to include it in the constitution,” Le Pen declared.
The Association of Catholic Families’ president, Pascale Moriniere, claimed that “panic” was the cause of the vote.
“Since the United States was the first to remove that from the law with the repeal of Roe v Wade, we imported a debate that is not French,” the speaker stated. “Feminist movements, who wanted to etch this on the marble of the constitution, caused a panic.”
Reiterating its opposition to the measure, the Vatican on Monday echoed the concerns voiced by French Catholic bishops.
The Vatican organization issued a statement stating, “The Pontifical Academy for Life recalls that in the era of universal human rights, there can be no ‘right’ to take a human life.”
However, on the other hand, PM Gabriel Attal stated taking all the women into consideration “your body belongs to you, and no one can decide for you”.
