2023-12-12 14:34:09
The bill including voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) in the Constitution was presented on Tuesday, December 12, to the Council of Ministers, a measure long requested by feminist associations who welcome the initiative but regret the wording adopted .
It is finally the “freedom guaranteed” women to resort to abortion which would appear in the fundamental law, rather than the “right to abortion” which was favored by women’s rights activists. The latter, like the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH), highlight the fact that the notion of freedom, less legally strong than that of fundamental right, will depend on the interpretation of the legislator who will be able to define the conditions of access to abortion, and potentially restrict them.
“The law determines the conditions under which the freedom guaranteed to a woman to have recourse to a voluntary termination of pregnancy is exercised”according to the final version of the text communicated to Agence France-Presse (AFP) by the entourage of the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti.
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A long-standing request from feminist associations and the left, the question of including the right to abortion in the Constitution resurfaced in 2022 after the annulment of the ruling guaranteeing the United States the right to abortion on the entire territory, which had the effect of an electric shock in many countries.
January 24 at the National Assembly
“The freedoms recognized for women, which we thought were somehow impossible to roll back, are being called into question”underlined Emmanuel Macron, Sunday, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights. “This is why France is pleased to set an example. »
According to a parliamentary source, the bill was placed on the agenda of the National Assembly for Wednesday January 24. After examination in the National Assembly and the Senate, the formulation will still have to be endorsed by 3/5 of the deputies and senators meeting in Congress in Versailles.
In fact, the inclusion of the recourse to abortion in the Constitution – a recourse currently recognized in an ordinary law – is above all symbolic. Its inclusion in the Basic Law would complicate attempts to remove it or seriously undermine it, but it could still be repealed by a new constitutional revision.
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It stays “extremely strong”argues the Elysée. “It’s a fight that also has enormous value in the international debate. » In the ranks of feminist associations, we also welcome a “strong symbol”.
More than 234,000 abortions in 2022
Inscription in the Constitution “is not going to change the way in which women resort to abortion in France today, it is not enough to improve things”underlines the president of the Women’s Foundation Anne-Cécile Mailfert to AFP, citing in particular the problems of access to abortion linked to the closure of maternity wards. “Nevertheless, it seems necessary to us in the international context of great violence and coordinated attacks by anti-abortion movements, it is important to reaffirm in which camp France is located”she adds.
“We are in a situation where the best writing is the one that will be voted on as quickly as possible and that is a compromise”, adds the president of Family Planning, Sarah Durocher. Conversely, the pro-life association Alliance Vita sees in the inclusion of abortion in the Constitution a “nonsense” and judges the establishment of a real “abortion prevention policy more necessary than ever”.
Temporarily authorized in 1975 by the Veil law, abortion was definitively legalized in France in December 1979. The law has since been expanded, with a legal period extended to fourteen weeks and 100% coverage. According to the latest official figures, 234,300 abortions were recorded in France in 2022.
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