France enshrines the right to abortion in its Constitution

7 mins

From our special correspondent at Place du Trocadéro,

“ Historical “. This Monday, March 4, the word is on everyone’s lips at Place du Trocadéro where a few hundred people came to watch live on a giant screen the inclusion of abortion in the Constitution. The place was not chosen at random. Usually used for the broadcast of sporting events, the square located opposite the Eiffel Tower is also a tourist hotspot. “It’s a messvery powerful message that we send to women all over the world », smiles Lola Paoli, communications manager at La Fondation des femmes, who initiated the event with Paris City Hall.

Mexico, Italy, South Korea… Images of pro-abortion demonstrations across the world flash on the giant screen, while the speakers blare Resists, France Gall’s anthem to individual resistance. “ When I heard that a rally was being organized here, I said to myself: “You have to be there,” says Danièle Lamendour, 70 years old. “ I sent a video to my granddaughter telling her I was going for her. I am here for all the aspiring women. »

20 kilometers away, in the South wing of the Palace of Versailles, the 925 deputies and senators gathered in Congress are preparing to add a short paragraph to Article 34 of the Constitution, but whose scope is indeed historic : “The law determines the conditions under which the freedom guaranteed to a woman to have recourse to a voluntary termination of pregnancy is exercised. » A first in the world, which comes in contrast to several countries where the right to abortion is declining, notably in the United States or Eastern Europe.

Read alsoAbortion rights: the European Union powerless in the face of attempts to roll back the clock (June 2023)

This modification requires three-fifths of the votes cast. But since the vote in the National Assembly and then in the Senate, the game has already been decided. This vote in Congress is no more than a formality. “There is no suspense, but the moment is crucial”, summarized Monday on France 2 Yaël Braun-Pivet, first woman to preside over the National Assembly, referring to “ an important moment for women around the world “.

The Congress meeting completes a process that began 18 months ago, after the repeal in the United States of Roe v. Wade which protected access to abortion in the country. In June 2022, the decision of the American Supreme Court has the effect of an electric shock in France. It shows that no freedom is guaranteed; a simple change of majority in Parliament can lead to its disappearance. The Veil law of 1975, which allows women to abort up to the end of the fourteenth week or for medical reasons throughout their pregnancy, could thus be threatened.

Protecting the right to abortion

Six legislative proposals were then tabled in Parliament to protect the right to abortion. Aurore Bergé, then president of the Renaissance group in the National Assembly, was the first to do so in June 2022. It was ultimately a proposal from La France insoumise MP Mathilde Panot which was debated in the National Assembly and then in the Senate, where it is amended. The “right” to resort to abortion, as proposed by the LFI MP in her text, becomes “the freedom of the woman to end her pregnancy”. President Emmanuel Macron eventually took up the subject and announced on March 8, 2023 a bill aimed at enshrining in the Constitution “the guaranteed freedom” of women to resort to abortion.

The text was validated without surprise in the National Assembly on January 30 with 493 votes to 30. But to be brought before Congress, it must pass the high-risk stage of the Senate, where the Les Républicains party is in the majority. However, the President of the Upper House Gérard Larcher, like the leaders of the LR and centrist senators, say they are opposed to it, arguing that the right to abortion is not threatened in France. The Senate finally approved the bill on Wednesday February 28, by 267 votes to 50. LR senators will admit having given in to family pressure.

Five days later, Parliament met in Versailles to validate the constitutional change, the twenty-second of the Fifth Republic. From the podium, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal begins his speech by repeating the words of Gisèle Halimi during the Bobigny trial, where she defended a teenager tried for having aborted after a rape. “ Today is a fundamental step that we can take. A stage that will go down in history, a stage that owes everything to the previous ones », Launches the head of government. “ We have a moral debt » towards all women « who suffered in their flesh », added the head of government, entering the Palace accompanied by Jean Veil, son of Simone Veil, who in 1974 had passed the law legalizing abortion in France. “ We give a second victory to Simone Veil “, he again assured, before giving way to the representatives of the different political groups.

Also listen[Série grandes plaidoiries] Maître Gisèle Halimi at the Bobigny trial

“The fight will never be over”

There are 18 of them taking the podium, in descending order of their numbers, to explain their vote, for five minutes per person. Senator Les Républicains (LR) François-Noël Buffet reiterates his party’s doubts about the “ freedom guaranteed “. “ Our group will vote mainly for constitutionalization. Part of it will abstain, and others will vote against », he announces.

After each parliamentarian had withdrawn to vote, the President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet returned to announce a clear result. With 780 votes for, far more than the 512 necessary for the 3/5th majority to be reached and 72 against for 902 voters and 852 votes cast.

This inclusion of abortion in the Constitution is above all symbolic. Certainly, it complicates the ban or restrictions that a future majority might want to establish. Changing the Constitution requires convening Parliament or holding a referendum. But in reality, women who wish to have an abortion face many obstacles.

“ This is historic for women’s rights, but the fight will never be over. The threat will always be present, particularly with the rise of the far right », fears Loona Mourenas, first vice-president of the General Federation of Student Associations (Fage). “ We will always remain vigilant “.