France took a step closer to enshrining access to abortion in its Constitution, after senators backed a bill on Wednesday to include it as a “guaranteed freedom.”
Before the constitutional amendment becomes official, it must receive approval by three-fifths of all lawmakers in a special meeting called a congress, which is planned for Monday and considered by many to be a rubber stamp, since both houses have already overwhelmingly supported the bill.
While many French politicians consider the move natural for the country that produced the universal rights of man, they also conceded that the trigger came from across the ocean, with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Within weeks, many proposed bills were presented to entrench abortion rights in France so that it would not be repealed by a future government seeking to curtail abortion.
“It is always too late, if we wait until a right is threatened to protect it,” Justice Minister Éric Dupond-Moretti told the senators. He added, “The freedom of abortion is not like the others because it allows people to decide their future. For democracy to control its destiny, women must be allowed to control theirs.”
Instead of declaring abortion a right, the change would declare abortion a “guaranteed freedom” overseen by Parliament’s laws.
