France guarantees abortion as a constitutional right to women in the country.
The Eagle News Service:
The lawmakers of France on March 4 approved a bill by thumping majority to enshrine abortion rights in France’s constitution, making it the only country to explicitly guarantee a woman’s right to voluntarily terminate a pregnancy.
The historic move was proposed by President Emmanuel Macron as a way to prevent the kind of rollback of abortion rights seen in the United States in recent years. The vote during a special joint session of parliament drew a long-standing ovation among lawmakers.
The bill was approved in a 780-72 vote in the Palace of Versailles. Abortion enjoys wide support in France across most of the political spectrum, and has been legal since 1975.
Many female legislators in the parliament hall smiled broadly as they cheered this historic decision. There were jubilant scenes of celebrations all over France as women’s rights activists appreciated the decision taken by the lawmakers in support of women’s rights.
This decision of French government is seen as going a step further in its guarantee of abortion rights than was the case in the former Yugoslavia, whose 1974 constitution said that ‘a person is free to decide on having children.’ Yugoslavia dissolved in the early 1990s, and all its successor states have adopted similar measures in their constitutions that legally enable women to have an abortion, though they do not explicitly guarantee it.
In the lead-up to the historic vote, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal addressed the 925 lawmakers gathered for the joint session in Versailles and called on them to make France a leader in women’s rights and set an example for countries around the world.
A recent poll showed support for abortion rights among the French public at more than 80%, consistent with previous surveys. The same poll also showed that a solid majority of people are in favor of enshrining it in the constitution.
The opponents of President Macron were seeing this move of French government to get a political mileage out of it in the upcoming election in France.
