Paris France:

French lawmakers are expected to add abortion rights to the country’s constitution on Monday, a first in the world and drawing overwhelming public support.

A congress of representatives of both houses of parliament in Versailles at 3:30 pm (1430 GMT) should find the three-fifths majority needed for change after overcoming initial resistance from the right-leaning Senate.

If Congress approves the move, France will become the only country in the world to explicitly protect the right to terminate pregnancy in its basic law.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned a half-century-old abortion right, allowing states to ban or restrict abortion, and President Emmanuel Macron pledged last year to make it legal in France since 1975. abortion into the constitution.

France’s lower house, the National Assembly, overwhelmingly approved making abortion a “guaranteed freedom” in the constitution in January, and the Senate followed suit on Wednesday.

The bill is now expected to clear the final hurdle for a joint vote between the two chambers, which will take place in a rare joint session at the former royal residence at Versailles.

After well above the three-fifths mark in two previous votes, few expected difficulties in finding the required outright majority.

Claudine Montel, president of the Femmes Monde (Women of the World) association, told AFP that when the political movement officially began in 1971, “we never imagined that one day the right to abortion would be enshrined in the constitution”.

Montel was the youngest signer of the “Declaration of 343,” a 1971 French petition signed by 343 women who admitted to illegally terminating their pregnancies, and as many as 800,000 of their fellow citizens each year.

“Wake us up”

Abortion was legalized in 1975 with the support of France’s Health Minister Simone Veil. After her death in 2018, the feminist icon received the rare honor of being buried in the Pantheon.

But another prominent feminist, Simone de Beauvoir, had told Montel the previous year that “it only takes a political, economic or religious crisis for women’s rights to be called into question,” she recalled.

In this sense, “the actions of the U.S. Supreme Court did good for women around the world because it woke us up,” Montel said.

Leah Hockett of the Center for Reproductive Rights said France could offer “the first clear and broad constitutional provision of its kind, not just in Europe but globally”.

Chile included the right to elective abortion in a draft of a new progressive constitution for 2022, but voters rejected the text in a referendum.

Some countries mentioned the right wing.

Cuba’s constitution guarantees women’s “reproductive and sexual rights.”

Some Balkan countries inherited a version of the former Yugoslavia’s 1974 constitution, which stated that “deciding on the birth of a child” was a human right.

Hockett said other states explicitly mention abortion in their constitutions but only allow it under certain circumstances.

In Kenya, for example, the constitution states that “abortion is not permitted except in the opinion of a trained health professional that urgent treatment is required or that the life or health of the mother is in danger, or otherwise permitted by statutory law”.

Making history?

The majority of the French public supports the move to provide appropriate additional protection.

A November 2022 survey by French opinion polling organization IFOP found that 86% of French people support including it in the constitution.

Politicians on the left and center welcomed the change, while right-wing senators privately said they felt pressure to approve it.

One said her daughters would “no longer come to Christmas” if she opposed the move.

Macron celebrated what he called a “decisive step” for the Senate on Wednesday and immediately called for a parliamentary congress on Monday.

The last time the constitution was asked to amend was in 2008, after lawmakers approved wide-ranging reforms under former President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The changes include limiting presidential terms to two terms and better guarantees of press independence and freedom.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)