France made history on Monday when lawmakers voted to explicitly enshrine the “guaranteed freedom” to abortion in the country’s constitution, becoming the first in the world to do so. The amendment was motivated by the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, French legislators have said, and will prevent future governments from “drastically modifying” the current abortion laws.
“We are sending the message to all women: Your body belongs to you, and no one has the right to control it in your stead,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said before the vote. The amendment easily cleared the three-fifths majority threshold required to amend the French constitution, with a 780 to 72 vote.
France first legalized abortion in 1975, four years after 343 women signed a manifesto written by feminist Simone de Beauvoir in which they admitted to having illegal abortions and pushed for legislative change. “One million women have abortions each year in France,” read the manifesto, which was published in the magazine Nouvel Observateur. “I declare that I am one of them. I declare that I’ve had an abortion. We demand open access to contraceptives; we demand open abortion.”
Since then, the country has had some of the most liberal abortion laws in Europe. France permits fully funded abortion care for women and minors up to 14 weeks of pregnancy without the restrictions common in the United States, such as waiting periods, mandatory counseling sessions, and parental consent. Abortions later in pregnancy are allowed in cases when the patient’s physical or mental health is at risk as well as in cases of certain fetal abnormalities.
Still, advocates say abortion access remains limited for some, in part due to medical deserts in the country. Research estimates that about 17 percent of French patients travel outside their home region to get an abortion, including between 3,000 and 5,000 people who are forced to travel abroad each year for care later in pregnancy. Advocates hope the amendment will pave the way for measures to help increase access.
Unlike in the U.S. and other European countries, abortion rights have not been under attack in France, and polls show most citizens see it as a fundamental freedom. But up until 2022, French lawmakers, including the government of President Emmanuel Macron, were hesitant to amend the constitution and argued it was unnecessary. The overturning of Roe changed their thinking. Before debate on the amendment began in January, French justice minister Éric Dupond-Moretti cautioned that history has shown how “fundamental rights” believed to be safe can be taken away, pointing at the loss of abortion rights in the United States. “We now have irrefutable proof that no democracy, not even the largest of them all, is immune,” he said.
Andrea González-Ramírez , 2024-03-04 21:30:10
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