Emmanuel Macron has resolved to enshrine the “right” to abortion in the French constitution by next year, following a resolution not to follow in the U.S.’s footsteps after it abolished the so-called national “right” to the lethal act.
The president of France announced on Sunday that a draft of the constitutional law permanently legalising abortion will be reviewed by the Council of Ministers by the end of the year.
“In 2024, women’s freedom to have an abortion will be irreversible,” wrote the increasingly unpopular Macron on X.
Revising France’s constitution requires both houses of the French Parliament to adopt an amendment before it is approved either through a simple majority referendum or by at least three-fifths of both houses of parliament.
In order to avoid a referendum, Macron’s government presented a bill in place of one originating from lawmakers, which means Macron “can convene a special congress of both houses.”
On March 8, International Women’s Day, Macron vowed France would secure a constitutional “right” to abortion after the U.S. overturned Roe v. Wade in its Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision.
“A universal message of solidarity to all women who today see this right violated: France will engrave in its Constitution the freedom of women to have recourse to abortion,” Macron tweeted at the time.
Last year, France’s National Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution to ensure “the right to voluntarily end a pregnancy” before it was approved by the Senate in February.
Like all the rest of Europe, France faces a catastrophic ageing and shrinking of its population.