The freedom to abort “remains in danger”, warned this Monday the French Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, at the beginning of the parliamentary debate that will make France the first country to protect this practice in its Constitution after several setbacks in the world.
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“I say to all women, within our borders and beyond, that the era of a world of hope begins”Attal assured, after emphasizing that this practice “remains in danger” in the world, “at the mercy of those who decide.”
Almost half a century after its decriminalization in France, there is broad social support, but The decision of the United States Supreme Court in 2022 to stop recognizing it as a federal right set off alarms.
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The illustrious Congress hall, created at the end of the 19th century in the palace of Versailles, southwest of Paris, is the scene of the debate, which will make this right “irreversible”, according to President Emmanuel Macron.
This extraordinary Congress, which brings together both chambers of Parliament, puts an end to a long legislative process, promoted by the left and the ruling party.months after the American setback.
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Its registration requires the support of three-fifths of the legislators present, but it appears favorable. Of the 925 French deputies and senators, 760 have already given their approval in the unicameral votes.
“We hope to transmit this positive energy to women and feminists in the world,” said Anne-Cécile Mailfert, of the Women's Foundation. “The collapse of the right to abortion in the United States shocked us, it devastated us,” she added.
Before France's historic decision, Chile attempted to introduce the right for women to “a voluntary interruption of pregnancy” in its draft new Constitution in 2022, which Chileans rejected in a referendum.
We hope to transmit this positive energy to women and feminists in the world.
On the opposite side, some countries implicitly prohibit it in their fundamental law by protecting the right to life from conception, as in the case of the Dominican Republic, the Philippines, Madagascar, Honduras and El Salvador.
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“If I were French, I would be fighting for this constitutional change,” Salvadoran feminist leader Morena Herrera told the French newspaper Libération in 2023, for whom this “will have repercussions on the rest of the world.”
'Suppressing a human life'
This activist then received the Simone Veil award, created in 2019 in honor of this French minister, an icon of female emancipation and a Holocaust survivor who achieved the decriminalization of abortion in 1975.
In 2022, the deadlines were extended to 14 weeks in France, where The number of voluntary terminations of pregnancy carried out has remained stable for two decades at around 230,000 annually..
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However, Access is “quite difficult” in rural areas, centrist deputy Éleonore Caroit explained to AFP, for whom constitutionalization will allow “strengthening access to abortion in those places.”.
Although around 80% of French people support the protection of abortion in the Constitution, according to polls, the bishops, opposed to the measure, called this Monday for “fasting and prayer.”
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“In the era of universal human rights, there can be no 'right' to take human life”The Pontifical Academy for Life, the Vatican body in charge of bioethics issues, said in a statement.
In parallel to the Congress, The anti-abortion organization March for Life called for a demonstration in Versailles, “to defend the lives of unborn children and all victims of abortion.”“.
Supporters of this constitutional reform followed this historic vote on the Trocadéro esplanade, with the Eiffel Tower in the background, thanks to a giant screen installed by the Paris mayor's office and the Women's Foundation.
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Following the planned approval of Congress, the final ceremony of inscribing abortion in the Constitution, in the presence of Macron, could take place on March 8, International Women's Day, according to a knowledgeable source.
AFP
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