France Protects Abortion in its Constitution
On March 4, France made history as the first country in the world to make abortion a constitutional right. This landmark decision sets France apart from other countries, because while many of them protect reproductive rights in their constitutions—such as Ireland and Canada— France is the first one to explicitly state that abortion is a guaranteed right. According to the BBC, at an overwhelming 780-72 vote, the French parliament revised the country’s constitution to include abortion as a protected right.
While abortion has been legal in France since 1975, there has been strong encouragement from the public to enforce its protection as a right, and this decision has formally affirmed that women will be able to exercise this right as needed. In addition to public support, this decision was evoked by recent overturnings of abortion laws, in perhaps most significantly, the United States. In June of 2022, the landmark case that protected abortion rights, Roe v. Wade, was overturned by the Supreme Court, and thus, the right to abortion was effectively removed from the United States. While this provoked fear and outrage among United States citizens, the overturning of Roe v. Wade had a global impact, made clear by this development in France’s constitution. Laura Slimani, a member of the Fondation de Femmes rights group, a feminist organization that advocates for gender equality in France and around the world, spoke on the issue: “This right (to abortion) has retreated in the United States. And so nothing authorised us to think that France was exempt from this risk.”
The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, also spoke highly of his country’s incredible progress. At a ceremony held in Paris celebrating the new constitutional amendment, quite notably held on International Women’s Day, the President delivered a passionate speech: “Today is not the end of the story but the start of a fight. We’re going to lead this fight in our continent, in our Europe, where reactionary forces are attacking women’s rights…This is why I want to enshrine that guaranteed freedom of abortion in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.”
Macron refers to the other European nations that, like the United States, have greatly restricted abortion access. Among them are Poland, where abortion was outlawed in most cases a few years ago, and Hungary, where women are forced to listen to the fetal heartbeat before they may access the procedure. Malta is another European nation that restricts abortion in most cases unless the mother’s life is in danger. In his speech, Macron illustrated how harmful these countries’ abortion policies are to women’s health and how restrictive they are to their personal freedoms. He also made clear his hope to spread France’s revised abortion policy throughout Europe so that women in the more conservative nations may access the same choices and thus, the same freedoms.