French President Emmanuel Macron wants to enshrine abortion in his country’s constitution. He said that on Wednesday in a speech during the national tribute to feminist lawyer and activist Gisèle Halimi in Paris on the occasion of International Women’s Day. Abortion law has been a much-discussed issue in France after parliament passed a bill to include it in the constitution in November.
That parliamentary proposal also passed the senate in February, on the condition that the law would not refer to “the right to abortion”, but “the freedom to have an abortion”. If the government had not come up with a bill, parliament would have had to vote again and a referendum might have been called. That could have ignited the anti-abortion lobby, proponents feared. 93 percent of the French are in favor of the right to abortion, according to research. Now that Macron has declared his intention, a referendum does not seem necessary.
With the words “the freedom of women to resort to voluntary termination of pregnancy” in his speech, Macron seems to agree with the text favored by the senate. That legally means something different from ‘abortion law’, feminist activist Céline Thiebault-Martinez recently explained to NRC: “The freedom to do something revolves around the choice of an individual, while with a right an individual has that freedom and others make everything possible so that that right is respected.” But it’s better than nothing, she says. “It is important that the law is established now, and then we will improve it bit by bit.” The constitutional amendment must take place “in the coming months,” said the president.
Also read this interview with activist Céline Thiebault-Martinez: Abortion in the French Constitution? ‘We don’t have time for games’