On International Women’s Day, France embedded the secured right to abortion within its constitution. President Emmanuel Macron pledged relentless efforts to extend this protection to women across Europe.
French legislators overwhelmingly approved the measure earlier this week, and following Friday’s ceremony means it can now enter into force.
In a special public ceremony, Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti used a 19th-century printing press seal to officially incorporate the amendment into France’s constitution. The cobblestoned Place Vendome echoed with applause as France achieved the historic milestone of being the first country to explicitly enshrine abortion rights in its national charter.
Abortion continues to be a highly contentious issue in the United States, it’s legal in nearly all of Europe and overwhelmingly supported in France, where the perspective on abortion leans more towards a matter of public health rather than a political battleground.
On March 4th, French legislators endorsed the constitutional amendment with a vote of 780-72, gaining support even from many far-right lawmakers.
This constitutional amendment has been hailed by women’s rights advocates around the world, including places where women struggle to access birth control or maternal health care.
Abortion has been legal in France since 1975, but Macron last year pledged to better protect it after the United States Supreme Court in 2022 overturned the half-century-old right to the procedure, leaving it up to individual states to decide.
Inclusion of abortion rights in the EU charter of fundamental rights
During the ceremony, timed to coincide with the International Women’s Day, the French President said he would push for the right to terminate a pregnancy to be included in the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights.
“Today is not the end of the story but the start of a fight,” he said, standing in front of the Ministry of Justice.
“We are going to lead this fight in our continent, in our Europe, where reactionary forces are attacking women’s rights,” he added.
Differing Views
According to the data of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the year 2021, demonstrates that approximately 5 percent to 13 percent of maternal death globally happen due to complications from unsafe abortions, the vast majority of which occur in developing countries.
However, the legal status of abortion varies considerably by region, yet a sweeping majority of countries permit abortion in at least some circumstances which may be vaguely defined.
To that inclusion of abortion rights in the EU Charter of fundamental rights, Neil Datta, the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights said that France could serve as an example for progress across Europe, as reported by Al Jazeera.
However, changing the charter of the European Union (EU) would require unanimity, which might prove difficult. While most of Europe has legalized abortion, some countries impose restrictions on women seeking to terminate a pregnancy, and deep divisions over abortion rights remain.
Highlighting that the previous year, EU member Malta backed down on a bill that would have allowed the termination of pregnancies when the mother’s health was at serious risk, rather stating that abortions would be allowed only when the life of the mother is in danger.
Likewise, Poland too has anti-abortion laws that are among the most restrictive in Europe. Pregnancies may be terminated there only in cases of a threat to the mother’s life or health or in cases of rape. The number of abortions in the country dropped from more than 1,000 in 2020 to 161 in 2022.