French lawmakers on Monday overwhelmingly approved a bill enshrining the right to abortion in the French constitution, making it the only country to explicitly guarantee a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy voluntarily.
The historic measure was proposed by President Emmanuel Macron as a way to prevent the rollback of abortion rights seen in the United States in recent years, and the vote in a special joint session of parliament drew a lengthy standing ovation from lawmakers. Happened.
The bill was approved at the Palace of Versailles by a vote of 780 to 72. Abortion is widely supported across most political lines in France and has been legal since 1975.
Many female members of Congress who were present at the venue cheered with big smiles on their faces. There were also jubilant scenes of celebrations across France as women's rights activists hailed the move promised by President Macron in the aftermath of the US Supreme Court's Dobbs decision in 2022.
Both the National Assembly and the Senate had already adopted separate bills amending Article 34 of the French Constitution as necessary. The bill specifies that “the law shall determine the conditions under which a woman may exercise her freedom to seek an abortion, which shall be guaranteed.”
France's measures are seen as going a step further in guaranteeing the right to abortion than in the former Yugoslavia, whose 1974 constitution stipulated that “people are free to decide whether to have children.'' Yugoslavia disbanded in the early 1990s, and all its successor states have adopted similar measures in their constitutions, legally allowing women to have abortions but not explicitly guaranteeing them.
Ahead of the historic vote, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal addressed 925 parliamentarians gathered in a joint session in Versailles, calling on them to make France a leader in women's rights and a model for the rest of the world.
“We have a moral debt to women,” Attal said. He paid tribute to Simone Weil, a prominent parliamentarian, former health minister and leading feminist who championed the bill to decriminalize abortion in France in 1975.
“We have a chance to change history,” Attal said in a moving and determined speech. “I want to make Simone Weil proud,” he said, to a standing ovation.
Congress overwhelmingly approved the proposal in January, and the Senate adopted it on Wednesday. A three-fifths majority was required in a joint session to enshrine the bill in the constitution.
None of France's major political parties, including Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally and the conservative Republican Party, have questioned abortion rights.
Le Pen, who won a record number of seats in parliament two years ago, said on Monday that her party planned to vote in favor of the bill, but added: “We don't need to make today a historic day.” .
Recent opinion polls show support for abortion rights among the French public at over 80%, consistent with previous surveys. The same opinion poll also revealed that the majority of the people were in favor of enshrining it in the constitution.
Even before the joint parliament began, celebrations were being held across France.
Sara Durocher, a leader in the Planned Parenthood movement, said Monday's vote was “a victory for feminists and a defeat for anti-choice activists.”
Adding the right to abortion to the constitution will make it much more difficult to prevent women from voluntarily terminating their pregnancies in France, women's rights and equality activists said.
“We have increased the level of protection of this fundamental right,” said Anne-Cécile Mehlferre of the Women's Foundation. “This guarantees current and future women that they have the right to have an abortion in France.”
In its introduction to the bill, the government argued that the right to abortion is under threat in the United States and that in 2022 the Supreme Court will overturn a 50-year ruling guaranteeing abortion rights.
“Unfortunately, this incident is not isolated. Even in Europe, there are currents of opinion in many countries that seek to prevent at all costs the freedom of women to have an abortion if they wish.”French law is written in the preface.
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to strip women of their right to abortion has reverberated through the political landscape in Europe and brought the issue back to public debate in France amid political turmoil.
Mathilde Philippe-Gay, a law professor and expert on French and American constitutional law, says that far-right parties determined to curtail women's rights are gaining political influence and being elected to form governments. He warned lawmakers not to let up on pressure for women's rights. Europe and other places.
“In France, where the majority of people support abortion, that may not be an issue,” said Philippe Gay. “But those same people may one day vote for a far-right government, and what happened in the US could happen in other parts of Europe, including France.”
Enshrining abortion in the French constitution “will make it difficult for anti-abortion opponents to challenge these rights in the future, but with the right political strategy they will be able to block abortions in the long run.” “It won't be,” Philippe-Gay added.
“What we thought we had achieved disappears in a matter of moments,” Yaël Brown-Pivet, the first female speaker of the French parliament, said in a joint session.
Amending the constitution is a painstaking process and a rare occurrence in France. The French Constitution has been amended 17 times since its creation in 1958. The last time was in 2008, when parliament was given more powers and French citizens were given the right to lodge complaints with the Constitutional Court.
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Barbara Sark reported from Nice.