French move to make abortion a ‘guaranteed freedom’ gains big win in lower house
France’s lower house of parliament has overwhelmingly approved a measure to inscribe abortion as a “guaranteed freedom” in the constitution, a pledge made by the president, Emmanuel Macron, last year.
But the controversial plan now goes to the upper-house Senate, where it faces resistance from the conservative Republicans and the far-right National Rally.
The measure passed the national assembly late on Tuesday by a vote of 493 to 30, with almost all members of Macron’s centrist minority coalition as well as leftwing opposition parties approving.
“Tonight, the assembly didn’t miss its rendezvous with the history of women and with history in general,” the justice minister, Éric Dupond-Moretti, said.
Macron and other French lawmakers called for the right to an abortion – which has been legal in France since 1974 – to be inscribed in the constitution after the US supreme court in 2022 ended an almost halfcentury national constitutional right to abortion.
Changes to the French constitution require either a referendum or approval by three-fifths of a combined vote of both chambers of parliament.
The government chose the term “guaranteed freedom” to thread a needle between the lower house, which earlier voted to enshrine the “right” to an abortion, and the Senate, which is dominated by centre-right parties and which so far has approved only “freedom” for abortion.
Many centre-right members of the Senate oppose mentioning abortion in the constitution at all, saying that it is not a constitutional issue and that access to abortion is not threatened in France.
The Senate will start examining the text on 28 February.