The deputies of both chambers of parliament voted in favor of the corresponding constitutional amendment on Monday at the Palace of Versailles with 780 votes to 72. The announcement of the result was greeted with sustained applause. “France Proud. Universal message,” wrote France President Emmanuel Macron on X
Cheers in Trocadéro Square
Cheers broke out in Trocadéro Square opposite the Eiffel Tower, where scores of people watched the debate and vote on a large screen. The Eiffel Tower glittered to celebrate the day, with glowing messages on the monument proclaiming, for example, #MyBodyMyChoice (My Body, My Choice). The document was stamped with a state seal in Versailles using a historic sealing press. It is to be ceremoniously sealed once more on International Women’s Day on March 8th in the presence of the President.
Image: (APA/AFP/DIMITAR DILKOFF)
“We have a moral duty towards women,” said Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, referring to the women who suffered or died during clandestine abortions. The decision should “set an example,” said the chairwoman of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet. She referred to the countries in which the right to abortion has recently been restricted, such as the USA or Eastern Europe. With the 2022 proposal, Macron responded to cuts in abortion rights in the USA.
Symbolic character
The constitutional amendment is primarily symbolic. Abortion on a health certificate is already in France Legally possible up to the 14th week. More than 80 percent of French people supported the constitutional change.
“It exceeds our dreams,” said women’s rights activist Claudine Monteil. In 1971, she was one of the signatories of a manifesto in which more than 300 French women openly confessed to having had abortions when it was still forbidden by law. “The law determines the conditions under which the freedom guaranteed to every woman to have an abortion is exercised,” reads the new constitutional article. The phrase “freedom to” is legally weaker than the “right to,” which was initially debated.
“It’s harder than it should be”
Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti previously assured doctors that this did not call into question the right to freedom of conscience. “If a doctor does not want to carry out this act, then he has the right to do so,” emphasized Dupond-Moretti.
Women’s rights activists pointed out that its inclusion in the constitution does not change much in practice. “Many gynecological centers have been closed, some women have to travel long distances. It’s more difficult than it should be,” criticized Anne-Cécile Mailfert, chairwoman of the Fondation des Femmes.
Abortion opponents demonstrated
Several hundred anti-abortion protesters demonstrated near the Palace of Versailles. Some of them emphasized that they were not once morest abortion, but merely opposed its inclusion in the constitution.
The Vatican also reiterated its opposition to any “right to destroy human life.” “In the era of universal human rights, there can be no ‘right’ to destroy human life,” emphasized the Pontifical Academy for Life, which is responsible for bioethical issues.
Former Health Minister Simone Veil paved the way for legal abortion half a century ago France released. Last year there were… France A good 234,000 abortions were carried out.
In her first reaction, SPÖ EU MP Evelyn Regner spoke of a “historic step”. “While women’s and fundamental rights are coming under pressure all over the world, French members of the Senate and the National Assembly are today taking a targeted stand once morest it: the freedom as a woman to decide for herself whether to have a pregnancy or to end it,” said the Vice President of the EU Parliament, who is also a member of the Equal Opportunities Committee.
