French lawmakers want the right to abortion in the Constitution
A group of lawmakers from French President Emmanuel Macron’s party will propose a bill to enshrine the right to abortion in the country’s constitution, two lawmakers said on Saturday.
The move comes after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 50-year-old ruling and removed constitutional abortion protections for women.
The right to abortion in France is already enshrined in a 1975 law relating to the voluntary termination of pregnancy within the legal framework which decriminalized abortion.
A constitutional law will cement the right to abortion for future generations, said Marie-Pierre Rixain, an MP and of Macron’s La République en Marche party.
“What happened elsewhere should not happen in France,” Rixain said.
The bill will include a provision that would make it “impossible to deprive a person of the right to voluntarily terminate a pregnancy”, according to the statement issued by two members of the National Assembly, the most powerful chamber of the French parliament.
Aurore Berge, leader of Macron’s party group in parliament, said the US Supreme Court’s decision to revoke abortion rights is “catastrophic for women around the world”.
“We have to take action in France today so that we don’t have a reversal of existing laws tomorrow,” Berge said in an interview with public radio France Inter on Saturday.
Macron’s party and his centrist alliance have the most seats in the National Assembly, although it lost its majority in Sunday’s legislative elections as voters opted for far-right and far-left parties .
Lawmakers on both sides of the political spectrum are expected to challenge Macron’s national agenda, such as his controversial pension reform.
In a deeply polarized political climate, Berge said French lawmakers should not take risks on fundamental rights even if they are already enshrined in law.
“Women’s rights are still fragile and regularly challenged rights,” Berge said. She added, “We don’t change the constitution like we change the law.”
Macron expressed his solidarity with women in the United States following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn a historic ruling nearly half a century old that will likely lead to the banning of abortion in around half of the states.
Macron said women’s freedoms were undermined by the decision. “Abortion is a fundamental right for all women. He must be protected, ”wrote the French president in a Twitter message on Friday evening.