French Senate votes to enshrine abortion access in the constitution after US rollback

Wednesday's vote comes after the lower house, or National Assembly, overwhelmingly approved the proposal in January. 

The government of President Emmanuel Macron had pushed for Article 34 of the constitution to be amended to cite “the freedom of women to have recourse to an abortion, which is guaranteed”.

The government said in its introduction to the bill that the change was necessary after the rollback of abortion rights in the United States, where in 2022 the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that guaranteed access to the procedure nationwide.

None of the major political parties represented in France’s parliament were questioning the morality of abortion, which was decriminalised in 1975. Most senators were in favour of the constitutional change, although some conservatives had criticised its wording. 

The lower house approved enshrining the “right” to an abortion in 2022, but some senators opposed the term. Last year, the Senate said it would agree to using the term “freedom” instead – after lengthy debate, the government eventually settled on the expression "liberté garantie" as a compromise. 

A survey by French polling company IFOP in November 2022 found 86 percent of French people supported making abortion a constitutional right.

The constitutional change will require definitive approval by a three-fifths majority of a joint session of parliament, traditionally held at the Palace of Versailles. 

In the moments after the Senate voted its approval, the Élysée Palace said in a statement that Macron would be summoning lawmakers to Versailles on Monday to officialise the change.

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More than 95% of women in Europe live in countries that allow some access to abortion. Some 39 European countries have legalised abortion on request, albeit with some restrictions. Six countries have strict limits in place although only three (Andorra, Malta and San Marino) do not allow abortion at all. 

France’s time limit on elective abortion is set at 14 weeks – a shorter timeframe than the proposed 15-week nationwide ban that has caused such uproar in the United States. Yet abortion care is reimbursed in full by France’s social security system.  

French law allows medical abortion within the first nine weeks of pregnancy (increased from seven during the Covid pandemic). 

Medical abortion – brought on by taking a pill – accounts for at least 90% of abortions taking place before 13 weeks of pregnancy and at least half of abortions overall in Europe, according to a 2018 study by the British Medical Journal. More than half of all US abortions are also performed via medication, according to the Guttmacher Institute for reproductive health policy. 

US backtrack on abortion inspired France to make it a constitutional right

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(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)