International Women's Day marked
France inscribed the guaranteed right to abortion in its constitution Friday, a powerful message of support for women's rights on International Women's Day.
Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti used a 19thcentury printing press to seal the amendment in France's Constitution at a special public ceremony. Applause filled the cobblestoned Place Vendome as France became the first country to explicitly guarantee abortion rights in its national charter.
The measure was overwhelmingly approved by French lawmakers earlier this week, and Friday's ceremony means it can enter into force.
While abortion is a deeply divisive issue in the United States, it's legal in nearly all of Europe and overwhelmingly supported in France, where it's seen more as a question of public health rather than politics. French legislators approved the constitutional amendment Monday in a 780-72 vote backed by many far-right lawmakers.
Friday's ceremony in Paris, attended by around 1,000 people, was a key event on a day focused on advancing women's rights globally. Marches, protests and conferences are being held from Jakarta, Indonesia, to Mexico City and beyond.
The French constitutional amendment has been hailed by women's rights advocates around the world, including places where women struggle to access birth control or maternal health care. French President Emmanuel Macron called it a direct result of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2022 rescinding long-held abortion rights.
Macron called for other countries to follow suit and proposed including the right to abortion in the European Union's charter, drawing cheers from the
crowd in Paris. However, such a move would likely meet stiff resistance from EU members that have tight abortion restrictions, such as Poland.
Macron's critics questioned why he pursued the measure in a country with no obvious threat to abortion rights but where women face a multitude of other problems.
While some French women saw the step as a major win, others said that in reality not every French woman has access to abortion. “It's a smokescreen,” Arya Meroni, 32, said of the event.
“The government is destroying our health care system, many family planning clinics have closed,” she said at an annual “Feminist Night March” in Paris on the eve of International Women's Day.
Still, for people such as public relations director Lunise Marquis, 44, it was a “major milestone for women's rights.”
“We are sending a message to the world,” she said.
France has a persistently high rate of women killed by their partners and challenges remain in prosecuting sexual abuse against women by powerful celebrities
and other men. French women also see lower pay and pensions — especially women who are not white.
Macron's government said the abortion amendment was important to avoid a U.S.-like scenario for women in France, as hard-right groups are gaining ground and seeking to turn back the clock on freedoms around Europe.
Macron presided over the constitutional ceremony. Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti used a 220-pound press from 1810 to imprint the amendment in France's 1958 Constitution.
It included the phrase, “the freedom of women to have recourse to an abortion, which is guaranteed.” The ceremony was held outdoors with the public invited, in another first.
France follows in the footsteps of the former Yugoslavia, whose 1974 constitution included the phrase: “A person is free to decide on having children.” Yugoslavia's successor states retained similar language in their constitutions, although they did not spell out guaranteed abortion rights.
Not everyone saw the day as a cause for celebration, as
angry protest marches were held in numerous countries.
The head of the Danish Trade Union Confederation, which has 1.3 million members, chafed at how differently women and men are treated in some areas.
“Unfortunately, we still see sky-high pay differences, professions dominated by one sex, a gendersegregated labor market, harassment cases that primarily affect women and a wide range of other equality problems,” Morten Skov Christensen said.
In Ireland, voters will decide whether to change the constitution to remove passages referring to women's domestic duties and broadening the definition of the family.
In Italy, where the country's first female premier is in power, thousands of people marched in Rome to protest gender-based violence. The issue grabbed public attention after the particularly gruesome murder of a young woman in November, which Italian President Sergio Mattarella said Friday “consumed all of Italy in horror and pain.” Data show more than half of the 120 women murdered in Italy last year were killed by current or former partners.