The Senate of France approved this Wednesday the inclusion of the “guaranteed freedom” to abort in the Constitution. This was the last parliamentary step that the project went through before the extraordinary Congress this Monday determined its course.
The initiative promoted by the president Emmanuel Macron along with the left was widely approved by the Upper house with 267 votes in favor compared to 50 againstin a context of setbacks in this matter, as in USA.
The president has already convened Congress for this Monday, which brings together both chambers of Parliament and to specify the inclusion of the right to abortion in the Constitution, the affirmative vote of three-fifths of the assembly is needed.
“I am committed to making women’s freedom to abort irreversible by enshrining it in the Constitution. After the National Assembly, the Senate is taking a decisive step that I celebrate. For the final vote, I will convene Parliament in Congress on March 4” , Macron expressed on his X account (formerly Twitter).
For her part, Mélanie Vogel, the senator and promoter of the project, celebrated: “This is a historic feminist victory! The Senate votes in favor of the constitutionalization of abortion. “This victory is above all that of the feminists, associations and activists who did not give up,” He maintained on his social networks.
The French Parliament defines the inclusion of abortion in the Constitution
The inclusion of the right to abortion in the Constitution has been debated for months in France. The National Assembly had already approved the project by a large majority.
“A democracy cannot control its destiny if the women who live in it do not have the freedom to control theirs,” considered the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Morettiin a last effort to raise doubts in the upper house before the vote.
Abortion was decriminalized in France in 1975 by a law promoted by Simone Veil, icon of female emancipation and Holocaust survivor.
According to a November 2022 survey, 86% of French people are in favor of including the right to abortion in the Constitution and according to official figures, that year there were 234,000 abortions in France.
Macron had promised last October that he would include the right to abortion in France’s Constitution.
Source: Ambito
