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FRANCE MAKES ABORTION A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT IN HISTORIC VERSAILLES
VOTE
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Kim Willsher
March 4, 2024
The Guardian
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_ The French parliament has enshrined abortion as a constitutional
right at a historic joint session at the Palace of Versailles. _
A message reading "My body my choice" is projected onto the Eiffel
Tower on March 4, 2024., DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images
The French parliament has enshrined abortion as a constitutional right
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at a historic joint session at the Palace of Versailles.
Out of 925 MPs and senators eligible to vote, 780 supported the
amendment, which will give women the “guaranteed freedom” to
choose an abortion.
There was thunderous applause in the chamber as the result was
announced on Monday; in central Paris, the Eiffel Tower was
illuminated to mark the occasion.
The measure had already been passed by the upper and lower houses, the
Sénat and the Assemblée Nationale, but final approval by
parliamentarians at the joint session at Versailles was needed to
effect constitutional change.
The prime minister, Gabriel Attal, told those gathered in the opulent
Congress Hall in the palace’s Midi wing: “We are haunted by the
suffering and memory of so many women who were not free. We owe a
moral debt [to all the women who] suffered in their flesh.
“Today, the present must respond to history. To enshrine this right
in our constitution is to close the door on the tragedy of the past
and its trail of suffering and pain. It will further prevent
reactionaries from attacking women.
“Let’s not forget that the train of oppression can happen again.
Let’s act to ensure that it doesn’t, that it never comes this
day.”
He added: “I say to all women within our borders and beyond, that
today, the era of a world of hope begins.”
Mathilde Panot, an MP from the hard-left France
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inscribing the abortion rights in the constitution, told the meeting
it was “a promise … for all women fighting [for them] everywhere
in the world”.
She added: “Your fight is ours. This victory is yours.”
The president, Emmanuel Macron
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promised to make women’s freedom to choose an abortion
“irreversible”. Writing the right to abortion into the
constitution, which involved amending the 17th paragraph of article 34
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that defines the law and its limits, was seen as a way of protecting
the law that decriminalised abortion in France in 1975.
During the national assembly debate on the law in January, the justice
minister, Éric Dupond-Moretti, told MPs that abortion rights were not
simply a liberty like any other, “because they allow women to decide
their future”.
Aurore Bergé, the minister in charge of equality and the fight
against discrimination, added: “This vote will be one of the most
important and remarkable of this parliament.”
Once the two houses had agreed the wording of the legal text, Macron
had the choice to hold a national referendum or call a joint
parliamentary “congress” made up of 577 MPs and 348 senators at
Versailles where it required three-fifths of votes cast to pass.
Monday’s session is the first to be held to change the constitution
since 2008, when Nicolas Sarkozy took steps to modernise French
institutions, including limiting presidents to a maximum of two
consecutive five-year terms in office.
Since 1958, the parliamentary congress has met 16 times and made 21
changes to the constitution.
The congress was overseen by Yaël Braun-Pivet, from Macron’s
Renaissance party, who is the equivalent of speaker of the lower
house, and parliamentarians were seated in alphabetical order.
The leaders of 18 political groups – 10 from the lower house, eight
from the upper – were invited to each speak for five minutes on the
change before the vote.
[Members of parliament sitting in the ornate Congress Hall]
Members of parliament listen to the French prime minister in the
Palace of Versailles. Photograph: Christophe Petit-Tesson/EPA
The text will now be authenticated by a “seal of congress” and
sent to the government. Macron will attend a ceremony to finalise the
constitutional amendment on Friday, International Women’s Day.
Political impetus was given to the constitutional change after the US
supreme court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v Wade, a ruling that
had recognised women’s constitutional right to an abortion and had
legalised it nationwide.
Rightwing senators from the Républicains party voted against a first
attempt to change the constitution in October 2022. Later that year,
the French parliament voted to extend France’s legal limit for
ending a pregnancy
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from 12 to 14 weeks, amid anger that thousands of women were forced to
travel abroad each year to terminate pregnancies in countries
including the Netherlands, Spain and the UK.
Anti-abortion protesters gathered in Versailles near the palace to
oppose the constitutional change.
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* Abortion Rights; Right to Abortion in French Constitution;
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