France will become the first country in the world to include abortion in the Constitution

The French Senate approved this Wednesday the inclusion of the right to abortion in the Constitution, in the same terms that the National Assembly had decided almost a month ago, which makes France the first country in the world to adopt this measure. By a result of 267 votes in favor and 50 against, the Senate approved supporting the text that the National Assembly voted on last January 30.

Deputies and senators will meet next Monday at the Palace of Versailles in a joint Congress to modify the Magna Carta and include this constitutional reform, which requires three-fifths of the parliamentarians.

“We have written a page in the history of women's rights. This is a historic vote. We will be the first country in the world to inscribe in the Constitution this freedom for women to dispose of their bodies,” proclaimed the Minister of Justice, Éric Dupont-Moretti, in charge of defending the reform by the Executive.

Half a century after the legalization of abortion in France, the country takes this step, a decision promoted by the president, Emmanuel Macron, after the decision of the United States Supreme Court to reverse the jurisprudence that gave federal protection to the right to abortion in that country.

“I committed to making the freedom of women to resort to voluntary interruption of pregnancy irreversible by inscribing it in the Constitution. The Senate has taken a decisive step,” said the president on the social network

Although he does not have a majority in either chamber, Macron has managed to push through this measure that has broad popular support.

The left-wing opposition embraced it with enthusiasm and the right has not opposed it, on the eve of European elections and for fear of gaining a reactionary image in society, which is why the text has received majority support, even from the extreme right. .

Some conservative voices had risen in the Senate to introduce amendments to the text, which would have delayed its inclusion in the Constitution, but they were rejected by the senators.

A moment of harmony

The president thus achieved a moment of concord in a mandate in which he is having many difficulties in carrying out his measures, with broad opposition in some laws such as the pension reform or the immigration law.

The constitutional reform will reform article 34, which will include “the guaranteed freedom of women to resort to voluntary interruption of pregnancy.”

Although he acknowledged that currently the right to abortion is not threatened in France, the Minister of Justice considered it “necessary” to register abortion so that “in the future no majority can call it into question.”

He recalled the case of the United States, but also those of Hungary or Poland, where conservative parties have restricted the right to abortion and pointed out that in the future it could also happen in France.

With this measure, it will be more difficult to modify it, since a qualified majority of three-fifths will be required to modify the Constitution again.

While the senators were debating the reform, a small group of anti-abortion activists demonstrated at the doors of the chamber, while others did so, somewhat further away, in favor of the new measure.