France will become the first country in the world to explicitly include voluntary termination of pregnancy in its constitution, sanctifying a procedure which was at the heart of the battle for women’s rights during the 20th century. To do this, Parliament meets in Congress on Monday March 4 at 3:30 p.m. in Versailles, in a rare procedure: it will be the 22nd time in the Fifth Republic and the first since 2008.
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According to the voting protocol, the 925 deputies and senators will first take their places in the South wing of the Château de Versailles. In the rococo decor, they will then listen wisely to Prime Minister Gabriel Attal presenting the very short text, which simply adds, to article 34 of the Constitution, the mention “ the freedom guaranteed to women to have recourse to a voluntary termination of pregnancy “.
The representatives of the 18 political groups in Parliament will then speak for five minutes each: this is not a debate, they are speeches to explain each person’s position. Following this passage, parliamentarians will go to neighboring rooms to vote.
In view scores during the passage of the text in the Assembly and the Senatethe required three-fifths majority in Parliament should be largely achieved.
Once the results are announced – a false suspense whose end is expected at 6:30 p.m. (5:30 p.m. UT) – the Congress will first authenticate these results. Only one step will then be missing: the sealing of the Constitution by the Keeper of the Seals. This procedure is scheduled for Friday at the Ministry of Justice, Place Vendôme, in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron: it will then be March 8, International Women’s Rights Day.
“ Difficulties remain in accessing abortion ” In France
Delphine Giraud, co-president of the Association of Orthogenic Midwives (Anso), hopes that this “ very good news » will have “ real consequences of access to abortion “, because ” there remain difficulties in accessing abortion in the territory “.
Delphine Giraud, co-president of the Association of Orthogenic Midwives (Anso), hopes that this “very good news” will have “real consequences for access to abortion”
For the orthogenic midwife – a classification of midwives who deal with abortions and contraception – the prospect of better care is important because abortion is often seen as “ the poor child in the hospital “.
Delphine Giraud, co-president of the association of orthogenic midwives (Anso), hopes that abortion will be better considered, often being an adjustment variable in the face of the hospital’s lack of resources
While France will thus become the first country to include this right in its fundamental law, in many countries, we are very far from this progress. Camille Butin, from the International Planned Parenthood Federation, hopes what is happening in France will be useful to influence other countries.
“An important decision for France, but also very important internationally,” according to Camille Butin, of the International Planned Parenthood Federation
Parisians salute a gesture “ symbolic ” but ” very strong »
Two out of three French people are in favor of this measure, because it will make any attempt to remove this right more difficult.
For Elisabeth, in her fifties, with red glasses on her nose, the inclusion of abortion in the Constitution is a source of pride: “ For France, this is very good news, since we will be the first country in the world to include it in its Constitution.explains the fifty-year-old, wearing red glasses. Even if in fact, this doesn’t change much, symbolically, I find it very strong. »
Same story for Michelle, 76 years old, who is delighted, but who regrets that “ some use it as a replacement for birth control pills “. Like Michelle, Jeanne, 21, welcomes a measure which will prevent any possible attempt to remove this right.
[REPORTAGE] Parisians salute a gesture that is only “symbolic” but which remains “very strong”
Parisians who wish will be able to follow the Congress vote on a giant screen on the Place du Trocadéro.
A long battle for abortion in France
If currently a strong majority is in favor of including voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) in the Constitution, as during the vote of Parliament in Congress on Monday March 4, the legalization of abortion was the result of a women’s fierce battle, which ended less than 50 years ago.
Only nearly 80 years ago, the Vichy regime (1940-1944) made abortion a “ crime against state security » and guillotined abortionists.
Despite the repeal of this law at the Liberation, abortion remained an offense. Although at the end of the 1950s, movements for legalization increased, women, especially the poorest, continued to have clandestine abortions, often at the risk of their lives.
The 1970s marked a turning point: “ I had an abortion », proclaimed in the press in 1971 343 women, including the actress Catherine Deneuve or the writer and figure of feminism Simone de Beauvoir, breaking a taboo to force public debate. Lawyer Gisèle Halimi did the same the following year, with the Bobigny trial: a teenager, denounced by her rapist for having had an abortion, was then transformed into a political platform.
These two electroshocks will help Simone Veil, then Minister of Health under Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, to secure the decriminalization of voluntary termination of pregnancy in 1975.
The following decades will see the fight continue, so that this formal right to abortion – originally motivated mainly by public health considerations – turns into a real right for women to have control over their body. This is done in particular through the consolidation of access and care arrangements: the creation of an offense of obstructing abortion in 1993, its 100% coverage by Health Insurance in 2013 or even the gradual extension of the legal appeal period in 2001 and 2022.
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