French Senate votes to make abortion a constitutional “freedom”
The upper house voted by 267 votes to 50 to support the constitutional change.
Paris:
France’s Senate on Wednesday backed a government move to enshrine the “freedom” to have an abortion into the constitution, which will now be voted on in a special congress.
President Emmanuel Macron promised last year to enshrine in the constitution the right to terminate a pregnancy — which has been legal in France since 1974 — in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a half-century-old right to the procedure, states Banning or curtailing abortion is permitted.
Despite opposition from some conservative members, the upper house voted by 267 votes to 50 to support the constitutional change.
The National Assembly, the lower house, voted overwhelmingly in January in favor of making abortion a “guaranteed freedom,” with almost all members of Macron’s centrist minority coalition as well as leftist opposition parties approving it.
Macron said he would convene a special congressional session of both houses at the Palace of Versailles on Monday for a final vote. Macron welcomed what he called a “decisive step” by the Senate in his announcement on Twitter.
Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said France was on the verge of a “historic day” when it would become “the first country in the world to protect in its constitution women’s freedom to decide what happens to their bodies.” .
The plan faced some opposition from right-wing senators and the government chose the expression “guaranteed independence” as an explicit compromise between the two houses.
The Lower House had approved ensuring the “right” to abortion in 2022, while the Senate last year was in favor of adding the “freedom” to resort to the procedure.
However, before a full vote, a Senate committee on Wednesday rejected proposals for the authority to amend the text of the proposed amendment.
Privately, several right-wing senators said they felt pressure to approve the change.
“If I vote against this, my daughters won’t be coming for Christmas,” said one female senator, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A November 2022 poll by the French polling company IFOP found that 86 percent of French people supported making abortion a constitutional right.
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