France’s Historic Judgment: Senate Approves Abortion Rights Constitutional Bill

The French Senate on Wednesday approved a measure that would make it constitutionally mandatory for women to get abortions. This is a major step forward for legislation that President Emmanuel Macron had vowed to address the US government’s restriction on women’s access to abortions.

The idea was overwhelmingly approved by the National Assembly, the lower house, in January, and this vote took place on Wednesday.

The Senate passes a bill to make abortion rights constitutional.
The bill will now be brought before a joint session of parliament next week when a three-fifths majority is expected to approve it. Following the outcome of the referendum, Macron said that his administration is dedicated to “making women’s right to have an abortion irreversible by enshrining it in the constitution.” He announced on X, the former Twitter, that he will call a joint meeting of parliament on Monday to have a final vote.

Article 34 of the constitution will be amended by the Macron administration to state that “the law determines the conditions by which the freedom of women to have recourse to an abortion, which is guaranteed, is exercised.” There were 267 votes in favor and 50 against the measure when it was approved by the Senate. The decision, according to Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti, was historic, and “the Senate has written a new page in women’s rights.”

After the decriminalization of abortion in 1975, not a single major political party represented in the French parliament has questioned the right to an abortion. The majority of Monday’s joint session at the Palace of Versailles is anticipated to be ceremonial since both chambers of parliament have approved the law.

According to India Today, the government said in the bill’s presentation that the right to an abortion is endangered in the US after the Supreme Court reversed a 50-year-old decision that had previously guaranteed it in 2022.

“Unfortunately, this event is not isolated: in many countries, even in Europe, there are currents of opinion that seek to hinder at any cost the freedom of women to terminate their pregnancy if they wish,” according to the French law’s introduction.

Last year, there were demonstrations in Poland due to a contentious amendment that further restricted the country’s already severe abortion laws. According to India Today, the Polish Constitutional Court decided in 2020 that women may not abort pregnancies in circumstances of serious prenatal malformations, such as Down syndrome.