Abortion has been legal in France since 1975.
Paris:
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that France would not rest until abortion rights are guaranteed by the EU Charter of Rights and globally. The right to abortion is now protected by the French constitution, a first in the world.
Macron spoke as a constitutional amendment that previously provided for the right to abortion was sealed with hot wax.
The International Women’s Day ceremony followed final parliamentary approval earlier this week.
“Today, France becomes the only country in the world whose constitution explicitly protects the right to abortion in all circumstances,” Macron said before the Ministry of Justice at Place Vendôme in central Paris.
But “we will not rest until this promise is delivered on across the world.”
Abortion has been legal in France since 1975, but Macron last year pledged better protections after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned half a century of abortion rights in the United States, leaving it to individual states to decide. Abortion.
In a rare and historic vote in both chambers of France’s parliament on Monday, the green light was given to include termination of pregnancy as a “guaranteed freedom” in the basic text, sparking celebrations from feminists.
“Today is not the end of the story. It is the beginning of the fight,” Macron said.
In Europe, “nothing is static anymore, everything must be defended,” he said, referring to “reactionary forces” elsewhere on the continent.
“That is why I want this guaranteed freedom to have abortion enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights,” he said.
The sealing ceremony came a day after the president pledged to constitutionalize the rights.
Justice Minister Eric Dupont-Moretti turned the handle of a 300-kilogram (660-pound) 19th-century press and placed a green wax seal on the ribbon attached to the official amendment document.
The sealing is a purely ceremonial procedure and the amendments will only take effect after the new law is published in the Official Gazette.
“Serve as a role model”
The constitutional reform has the support of a majority of the French public, although some conservatives remain opposed, arguing that it is not a constitutional issue.
Leah Hockett of the Center for Reproductive Rights said that so far no country has explicitly guaranteed the right to terminate a pregnancy in its basic text.
Some countries allude to the right to abortion, while others explicitly mention abortion, but only in certain circumstances.
Neil Datta from the European Parliament’s Sexual and Reproductive Rights Forum said France’s move sent a strong signal.
He said this “could provide momentum for improved abortion legislation, just as the reversal of Roe v. Wade in the United States gave some momentum to anti-abortion groups around the world.”
France, he said, “can be an example for progressives in all countries in Europe and beyond to set a course.”
Even without amending the constitution, “they can … improve their legislation.”
Yael Braun-Pivet, the first female National Assembly Speaker, read out the results of Monday’s historic vote, in which 780 MPs voted in favor and 72 voted against.
More than 20 female speakers from around the world also came to Paris to attend the ceremony.
The seal was last used in 2008, after lawmakers approved sweeping amendments under former President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The changes include limiting presidential terms to two terms and better guarantees of press independence and freedom.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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