France wants to shield the voluntary interruption of pregnancy in the Constitution

The newly elected French National Assembly will deal with something unforeseen until a few days ago: inserting the right to abortion into the Constitution to better protect it.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
27 June 2022 Monday 18:54
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France wants to shield the voluntary interruption of pregnancy in the Constitution

The newly elected French National Assembly will deal with something unforeseen until a few days ago: inserting the right to abortion into the Constitution to better protect it. A bill to this effect was presented by Macron's party, La República en Marcha (LREM), which will soon be called Renaissance.

The sudden initiative is a consequence of the impact caused by the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States to give free rein to each state to prohibit the voluntary interruption of pregnancy.

The urgency of the proposal is surprising, considering that anti-abortionists are very minority in France and there is no risk in view of a revocation of the right, which was established in 1975, with the center-right Valéry Giscard d'Estaing as president. The so-called Veil law was named after its promoter, Simone Veil, then Minister of Health. This Holocaust survivor was later the first female president of the European Parliament. heroic figure. Her remains were transferred to the Pantheon at the will of Macron.

At a time when France is without a parliamentary majority and it is urgent to take measures to alleviate the effects of inflation, dealing with shielding abortion in the Constitution puts opposition parties, left and right, in a bind, forced to “ picture himself” and to align himself or not with the government. The mayor of Pau and leader of the centrist Democratic Movement (MoDem), François Bayrou, an ally of Macron, is reluctant to the constitutional amendment. For the far-right Marine Le Pen, the issue is embarrassing because in her party there are people who are tolerant on this point, like her, and others, from the fundamentalist Catholic wing, who are very anti-abortionists.