While countries like Slovenia and the former Yugoslavia protect the right to decide – whether or not they want children, France becomes the first and the only country to protect the rights of this extent and guarantee them by enshrining it in their constitution.
It marked the first milestone for France, which was celebrated by women’s rights organizations and opposed by several anti-abortion groups, as they have a broader acceptance of abortion rights than other countries and the USA, with a majority of 80% population supporting the same.
A change for the good
In the wake of 2022 abortion rights rolled back by the United States Supreme Court, French President Emmanuel Macron promised this measure, claiming that the government aims to make “a woman’s right to have an abortion irreversible” and it is a ‘universal message’ being sent to other countries by making abortion a legal right.
Furthermore, the Elysee Palace has proposed to amend Article 34 of the French Constitution. The new amendment will be specific that “the law determines the conditions by which is exercised the freedom of women to have recourse to an abortion, which is guaranteed.”
The bill was passed by both – the National Assembly (The upper house of the French Parliament) and the Senate (The lower house) as they approved of making abortion a guaranteed freedom. Moreover, this constitutional change got approval by a supermajority of three-fifths.
Opposition to the bills
The bill was initially resisted by the Senate, but no major political parties representing in the parliament had questioned the new change – the right to abortion.
The French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal also said, “When we want to attack the freedoms of a people, we always start with that of women. Our freedoms are inherently threatened. Inherently fragile, in essence at the mercy of those who decide.”
France aims to convey a message to all women that their body belongs to them and no one can decide for them, by this constitutional change as it becomes the first nation in the world to inaugurate access to abortion legally.
