France yesterday made history by becoming the first country in the world to grant constitutional rank to women’s right to have an abortion. In a rare moment of unity between the parties, of true political cross-cutting, the two chambers of Parliament approved by an overwhelming majority – 780 votes in favor, 72 against and 50 abstentions – to amend the Constitution to shield the right to voluntarily interrupt the pregnancy
The decision, a milestone in the feminist struggle and a message to rulers on the international scene who question sexual and reproductive rights, was taken in an extraordinary joint session of the National Assembly and the Senate, at the Palace of Versailles. The 925 deputies and senators – this joint body is called Congress – had been summoned by President Emmanuel Macron, who was not present at the session as a sign of respect for the division of powers.
The amendment to the Constitution required a three-fifths majority of the parliamentarians, a threshold that was known to be guaranteed because the two chambers had already reached it loosely when they had voted on the text.
The session took place in a large hemicycle built in 1875 in the palace built by Louis XIV, the Sun King. The room is sumptuous, with numerous monarchical references. Since the Fifth Republic began its journey in 1958, all constitutional revisions have been adopted by Congress in Versailles. The site is also used for the president’s very infrequent speeches to parliamentarians.
The right to abortion has existed in France since January 17, 1975, with the well-known “Simone Veil law”, in honor of who was Minister of Justice during the presidency of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.
The constitutional amendment adopted yesterday is very short, but essential, as it shields the right and makes it very difficult for a government opposed to abortion to decide in the future to declare it illegal. “The law determines the conditions under which the freedom guaranteed to women to resort to the voluntary termination of pregnancy is exercised,” says the text added to article 34 of the Constitution.
The first to speak was the president of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet. She recalled that she had been the first woman appointed to the position. Braun-Pivet, a married mother of five, wondered if France would be going against the grain. “No, it’s at the forefront – she replied to herself. It is in place. This is his mission, what is expected of him”.
The tone of most speakers was one of pride at the step being taken, satisfaction at the pioneering role of France, in whose public opinion the situation in the United States, where the right to ‘abortion is increasingly under attack, even from the Supreme Court. France has wanted to be a counterpoint to the restrictive trend that authoritarian regimes and some right-wing populist governments usually impose. To some extent, what has happened in France is an attempt to globalize law.
The Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, who like Macron is particularly gifted for oratory on solemn occasions, gave a brilliant and moving speech. He spoke of the right to abortion as “the most intimate of freedoms, freedom par excellence”, and paid tribute to Simone Veil, to whom yesterday France gave “a second victory”. “Yes, France is today faithful to its history”, stressed the head of government.
The member of La França Insubmisa (LFI, radical left) Mathilde Panot insisted on the strength of the French gesture in the international context. Panot said that the right to abortion “only bothers the reactionaries” and that the vote in Versailles “is also a promise for all the women around the world who are fighting for the right to dispose of their bodies in Argentina, the States United States, Andorra, Italy, Hungary, Poland”.
From the Vatican, the Pontifical Academy for Life expressed its disagreement with the decision taken in Versailles. “Precisely in the era of universal human rights there cannot be a right to suppress a human life”, stated the academy in a note that reflected the official and unchanged position of the highest authorities of the Catholic Church.
