French lawmakers on Monday voted to outright hide access to abortion in the Constitution, making their country the first in the world to do so.
Knowing full well that they were breaking the historic site from the grand assembly room inside the Versailles Palace, politicians gave impassioned speeches about women’s rights around the world, paid tribute to brave French women who fought for abortion rights when it was illegal and was quickly up to date and again to offer a standing ovation.
“We are sending a message to all women: Your body belongs to you and no one has the right to control it on your behalf,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said before the assembled lawmakers voted 780-72 for amendment.
The amendment declared abortion a “guaranteed liberty,” governed by acts of Parliament. That means future governments will not be able to “substantially change” current laws that fund abortion for women who seek it, up to 14 weeks into their pregnancy, according to France’s justice minister, Éric Dupond- Moretti.
The amendment of the Constitution did not take place in France; the current Constitution has been amended over 20 times since it was adopted in 1958. But this is rare. Lawmakers last amended the Constitution in 2008.
The impetus for the latest change was the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, an issue that lawmakers have repeatedly raised. But the move also reflects widespread support for abortion in France, and a successful campaign by a coalition of feminist activists and lawmakers from multiple parties.
“France shows the right to abortion is no longer an option, it is a condition of our democracy,” said Mélanie Vogel, a Green Party senator who has been a major force behind the bill. “The French Republic will no longer remain democratic without the right to abortion.”
said Ms. Vogel in an interview, “I want to send a message to feminists outside of France. Everyone told me a year ago that it was impossible.” He added: “Nothing is impossible when you mobilize society.”
The Conference of Bishops, representing the Catholic Church in France, opposed to the amendment. But in France, a country where calls to protest regularly bring hundreds of thousands to the streets, opposition has been remarkably sparse.
With the vote, France became the first country in the world to explicitly write access to abortion into its Constitution, according to five constitutional experts.
“It does not refer to reproductive choices or the right to have children; the language is very different when you say access to abortion,” said Anna Sledzinska-Simon, a professor of comparative constitutions and human rights law at the University of Wroclaw in Poland. “The French call it by its name – that’s important.” He added: “The whole world is watching.”
Constitutional experts say the amendment broadens the mold of France’s main text, which was written by men for men while ignoring their reliance on women.
“This is a big milestone, because it goes to the very foundation of this idea that constitutions are about the autonomy of men,” said Ruth Rubio-Marín, author of a book on gender and the constitution. “Women’s role as citizens is valued and defined as breeders and nurturers,” she said. “That was left behind. It’s just assumed as part of the way this modern society is built.”
Other constitutions, especially younger democracies like Ecuador, have expanded to include things like support for caregiving and the equal division of domestic work. But they often remain more aspirational than actionable, Ms. Rubio-Marín, who teaches constitutional law at the University of Seville in Spain.
“That this is happening in the old world, in an established democracy where the constitution is taken seriously – in that way, it’s historic,” he said.
The fight for legal abortion in France erupted into public view in 1971, when 343 French women signed a manifesto written by French feminist Simone de Beauvoir declaring that they practiced secret, illegal abortions and demand that the law be changed.
Four years later, a female minister, Simone Veil, successfully promoted a temporary law decriminalizing abortion and offering limited access to health services to terminate pregnancies.
Throughout the special session of the legislature on Monday, lawmakers paid tribute to Ms. Veil, a Holocaust survivor and human rights champion, as well as Gisèle Halimi, the former lawyer whose defense of a 16-year-old student who had an illegal abortion after being raped led to her acquittal in 1972. The case is a turning point on the road to the legalization of abortion.”
“We followed in your footsteps and like you, we succeeded,” said Senator Laurence Rossignol, a former women’s rights minister. She added that French feminists will continue to fight around the world against “resisters,” citing politicians including Donald J. Trump and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin.
“Liberty, equality, fraternity,” he said, citing France’s national motto. “And, if I may add, sorority.”
Over the past five decades, the law guaranteeing abortion rights has been continuously expanded, to the point that it is now considered one of the most liberal in Europe. This includes the right to fully funded abortions for women and minors up to the 14th week of pregnancy upon request, with no waiting period or counseling sessions required.
Later abortions are permitted if the pregnancy is considered a risk to the physical or psychological health of the woman or if the fetus exhibits certain anomalies.
After the Covid pandemic hit, France quickly ensured that women seeking abortions could receive a medical consultation virtually, said Laura Rahm, a researcher at the Central European University, in Vienna, who has examined access to abortion in France. for five years. Study in Europe.
“A system will always crack or crack when it’s put under pressure,” he said. The French system clearly shines, he said.
Still, study shows that 17 percent of women travel outside their home regions – called departments in France – for abortion services, sometimes due to the growing lack of local medical facilities.
And although the law states that women should have the choice of medical or surgical abortions, in practice this is often not the case, says Sarah Durocher, national co-president of Le Planning Familial, a French equivalent of Planned Parenthood.
Putting the “guaranteed freedom” to have an abortion in the Constitution means that changes need to be made, he said.
“It will give birth to other things,” said Ms. Durocher, who noted that 130 centers offering abortions have closed in France over the past decade. “For example, real policies for effective access to abortion.”
Despite the new amendment, French feminists say France remains a male-dominated society where sexism persists. Adjusting to her perch presiding over the session as president of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet pointed out that she is the first woman in French history to preside over such an assembly.
But unlike in the United States, the issue of abortion in France is not politically charged and highly divisive. Instead, most French people believe that abortion is a basic public health service and a woman’s right. A recent one 29 country survey has shown France to have the second highest support for legalized abortion in the world, after Sweden.
However, attempts to enshrine abortion in the Constitution failed before the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The decision prompted French legislators to preserve the practice, which presented several bills over the months. Last year, the French government introduced its own bill aimed at enshrining it in the Constitution.
Last week, members of a coalition of lawmakers and feminist organizations feared the Senate, dominated by conservatives, might derail the amendment, but it passed.
“We’ve been able to create this environment, where if you vote against this amendment, it means you want to keep the right as a legislator to potentially ban abortion in the future,” Ms. Vogel. “So if you’re not against abortion, you have no reason not to vote in favor of it.”
He added, “That narrative permeates society.”
Ségolène Le Stradic and Aurelien Breeden contributed reporting.
