France will include the freedom to resort to abortion in its Constitution, President Emmanuel Macron announced on social networks on Sunday.
A bill to this effect will be “presented to the Council of Ministers by the end of the year”, so that “in 2024, the freedom of women to resort to abortion will be irreversible”, writes Mr. Macron.
The Head of State made this commitment on March 8, International Women’s Rights Day, responding to concerns arising from the cancellation a year and a half ago of the ruling guaranteeing the United States the right to abortion. throughout the territory.
Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed on October 4 his wish to see this promise come to fruition.
“I expressed my wish, on March 8, that we could find a text agreeing the points of view between the National Assembly and the Senate and allowing a Congress to be convened in Versailles,” underlined the Head of State .
Unlike a parliamentary initiative proposal, a bill to revise the Constitution does not necessarily have to be submitted at the end to a referendum, which can also be approved by a three-fifths majority of the two chambers of parliament meeting in Congress. .
In France, the right to abortion (voluntary termination of pregnancy) is currently recognized in an ordinary law of 1975 and inscription in constitutional stone would complicate any future attempt by the legislator to suppress it or seriously undermine it, according to its defenders.
According to a November 2022 survey, nearly nine in ten French people (86%) are in favor of including the right to abortion in the Constitution.
Published in September, the latest official figures show an increasing number of abortions in 2022 (234,000) in France after two years of exceptional decline linked to the COVID-19 epidemic.