Monday, a few hours before parliamentarians’ vote on the inclusion of the right to abortion in the Constitution, the Vatican broke its silence and commented for the very first time on the process underway in France.
It is now official, France has voted in favor of including in its Constitution “the freedom guaranteed to women to have recourse to a voluntary termination of pregnancy”. The parliamentarians, meeting in Congress this Monday March 4, 2024 in Versailles, largely approved the text. While three-fifths of the votes cast were necessary for the adoption of the text, ultimately 780 votes for and 72 against were counted at the end of the vote. A score welcomed in France, but a result which should not be as well seen on the other side of the Alps.
A few hours before this historic vote, which made France the first country to include the freedom for women to resort to abortion in a Constitution, the Vatican, fiercely opposed to abortion, had for the first time expressed on the process underway in France. Thus, as relayed Vatican Newsthe Pontifical Academy for Life considered that “in the era of universal human rights, there can be no ‘right’ to take human life.”
The Pontifical Academy for Life took advantage of its statement to appeal “to all governments and all religious traditions to do their best so that, in this phase of history, the protection of life become an absolute priority, with concrete measures in favor of peace and social justice. And the Holy See affirms that “the protection of human life is the first objective of humanity”. “Science, technology and industry” must, according to him, above all be “at the service of the human person and fraternity”.