Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, has announced plans to embed abortion rights into country’s Constitution to make them irreversible.
In an online statement on Sunday, Macron said that a draft proposal would be presented to the State Council, France’s highest administrative court, in the upcoming week, with the goal of constitutionalizing abortion rights by the end of the year.
“In 2024, the right of women to choose abortion will become irreversible,” he said.
The announcement follows a promise Macron made on March 8, International Women’s Day, which was seen as a response to the overturning of federal abortion rights in the United States in 2022.
Constitutional revision in France requires either a referendum or approval by at least three-fifths of the members of both chambers of parliament united in a congress.
Most constitutional changes in post-war France have been approved by congressional vote.
The decriminalization of pregnancy termination in France took place in 1975, and subsequent laws have aimed to enhance the conditions for abortions, including safeguarding women’s health and anonymity and reducing the financial burden on women seeking the procedure.
An opinion poll conducted in November 2022 revealed that 89 percent of respondents supported the idea of constitutionalizing abortion rights. Government statistics indicate that 234,000 abortions were performed in France the previous year. AFP