French lawmakers voted on Monday to explicitly enshrine access to abortion in the Constitution, making their country the first in the world to do so.
Fully aware that they were breaking historic ground from the grand assembly hall inside the Palace of Versailles, the politicians gave impassioned speeches about women’s rights around the world, paid tribute to the courageous French women who had fought for abortion rights when they were illegal and decreased. and again to offer a standing ovation.
“We are sending the message to all women: Your body belongs to you and no one has the right to control it for you,” Prime Minister Gabriel Atal said before the assembled MPs voted 780-72 in favor of the amendment.
The amendment states that abortion is a “guaranteed liberty”, which is overseen by Acts of Parliament. This means that future governments will not be able to “drastically modify” current laws that fund abortion for women who seek it, up to 14 weeks into their pregnancy, according to French Justice Minister Éric Dupond-Moretti.
Amending the Constitution is not unprecedented in France. the current Constitution has been amended over 20 times since it was adopted in 1958. But it 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 repeatedly raised by lawmakers. But the move also reflects widespread support for abortion in France, and the successful campaign of a cross-party coalition of feminist activists and lawmakers.
“France shows that the right to abortion is no longer an option, it is a condition of our democracy,” said Mélanie Vogel, a Green Party senator who was a major force behind the bill. “The French Republic will no longer remain democratic without the right to abortion.”
Ms Vogel said 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 Bishops’ Conference, which represents the Catholic Church in France, opposed the amendment. But in France, a country where calls for protest regularly bring hundreds of thousands to the streets, opposition has been particularly rare.
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 state reproductive choices or the right to have children. it’s a very different language 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 critical.” He added: “The whole world is watching.”
Constitutionalists say the amendment broadens the mold of France’s founding text, written by men for men, while ignoring their dependence on women.
“It’s a big milestone, because it goes to the very basis of this idea that constitutions were about male autonomy,” said Ruth Rubio-MarÃn, author of a book on gender and constitutions. “Women’s role as citizens was essentialized and defined as nurturers and caregivers,” she said. “That was left out. It was just seen as part of this modern society that was being built.”
Other constitutions, particularly those of newer democracies like Ecuador, have expanded to include things like support for caregiving and an equal division of housework. But they often remain more aspirational than practical, said Ms. Rubio-MarÃn, who teaches constitutional law at the University of Seville in Spain.
“That this happens 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 by French feminist Simone de Beauvoir declaring that they had carried out secret, illegal abortions and demanding that the law be changed.
Four years later, a female minister, Simone Veil, successfully passed a temporary law decriminalizing abortion and offering limited access to health services to terminate a pregnancy.
Throughout Monday’s special legislative session, lawmakers paid tribute to Ms Veil, a Holocaust survivor and human rights activist, as well as Gisèle Halimi, the former lawyer who defended a 16-year-old student who had an illegal abortion then the rape led to her acquittal in 1972. The case was 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 minister for women’s rights. She added that French feminists will continue to fight internationally against “those who resist,” citing politicians such as Donald J. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
“Liberty, equality, fraternity,” he said, invoking the French national motto. “And, if I might add, brotherhood.”
Over the past five decades, the law guaranteeing abortion rights has been continuously expanded, to the point where it is now considered among the most liberal in Europe. It 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 required counseling sessions.
Later abortions are permitted if the pregnancy is considered a risk to the woman’s physical or psychological health, or if the fetus exhibits certain abnormalities.
After the Covid pandemic hit, France quickly ensured that women seeking abortions could receive medical advice virtually, said Laura Rahm, a researcher at the Central European University, in Vienna, who looked at abortion access in France for a five-year European study.
“A system always shines or breaks when put under pressure,” he said. The French system had clearly shone, he said.
However, studies show that 17 percent of women travel outside their regions – called departments in France – for abortion services, sometimes because of the growing lack of medical facilities locally.
And although the law states that women must have the choice of medical or surgical abortions, in practice that is often not the case, said Sarah Durocher, national co-president of Le Planning Familial, a French equivalent of Planned Parenthood.
Placing “guaranteed freedom” for abortion in the Constitution means it will have to change, he said.
“This will give rise to other things,” Ms. Durocher said, noting that 130 abortion centers have closed in France in the past decade. “For example, real policies so that there is effective access to abortion.”
Despite the new amendment, French feminists say France remains a male-dominated society where sexism persists. Taking her seat overseeing the session as president of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet pointed out that she was the first woman in French history to preside over such a gathering.
But unlike the United States, the abortion issue in France is not politically charged and deeply divisive. On the contrary, most French people believe that abortion is a basic public health service and a woman’s right. A recent survey of 29 countries showed that France has the second highest support for legal abortion in the world, after Sweden.
However, efforts to enshrine abortion in the Constitution had failed before the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The decision prompted French lawmakers to preserve the practice, introducing multiple bills within months. Last year, the French government introduced its own bill seeking to enshrine it in the Constitution.
Just last week, members of a coalition of lawmakers and feminist groups feared the conservative-dominated Senate could derail the amendment, but it passed.
“We managed to create this environment where if you voted against this change, that meant you wanted to retain the right as a legislator to possibly ban abortion in the future,” Ms. Vogel said. “So if you’re not anti-abortion, you had no reason not to vote for her.”
He added: “This narrative has permeated society.”
Ségolène Le Stradic and Aurelien Breeden contributed to the report.
