Lhe proposal to constitutionalize the voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) is debated in France in the Senate on 1is february. Several groups have mobilized to support the inclusion of abortion in the French Constitution.
This demand has been heard, notably following the recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, Dobbs vs Jackson Women’s Health Organizationto annul the constitutional right to abortion, established by the court decision Roe vs Wade in 1973. While the right to abortion is generally supported by the French publicsome parliamentarians argue that the constitutionalization of abortion is unnecessary, meaningless and an extreme demand.
The Senate previously opposed the constitutionalization of abortion on October 19, 2022. According to Agnès Canayer, senator related to the group Les Républicains (LR), “Inscribing the right to abortion would open Pandora’s box and upset the balance of the French Constitution”.
The constitutionalization of abortion is not, however, a utopia or an extreme demand. It has meaning for many women and in a world where the right to abortion is constantly threatened. It will not upset either France or the French Constitution, but will rather be an opportunity to better protect the right to abortion and to set an example for the rest of the world.
Only in Canada
Constitutions serve to define the fundamental laws of a country.
Several countries in the past, such as Chile and Ireland, included the prohibition of abortion in their Constitutions, both to prevent abortions and in order to make any reform difficult.
This meant that changing abortion law required constitutional reform and often a referendum, as was achieved in Ireland in 2018, with an outcome overwhelmingly in favor of repealing the ban. [au Chili, la nouvelle Constitution a été rejetée par référendum le 4 septembre 2022].
This exceptionality of abortion in law is not limited to the constitutionalization of the prohibition of abortion; today, abortion, at least in certain circumstances, is criminalized in almost every country in the world. It is only in Canada that it is regulated as health care, and is not framed by any specific penal sanction. Throughout the world, abortion is mainly regulated by criminal law, which aggravates the stigma surrounding this right and care.
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