Is France the first country to include the right to abortion in its Constitution?

The French Parliament, meeting in Congress at the Château de Versailles, votes on Monday March 4 to include the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy in the Constitution. Is France the first country to decide to include the right to abortion in its Constitution? This is the assertion that has been circulating lately. Franceinfo checked.

There is a country which tried to formally guarantee in its Constitution the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy: it is Chile, in 2022. It was in a draft new Constitution carried by the left-wing president Gabriel Boric because the Constitution dated from the Pinochet dictatorship. But now, the draft new Constitution was rejected by the Chileans by referendum and we no longer talk about this provision on abortion. You should know that Chile was particularly late on the issue of the right to abortion since it was completely banned until 2017.

The right to “decide freely on the birth of one’s children”

There are, moreover, countries in which the right to abortion appears in the Constitution, but less explicitly than in France. This is the case of several countries resulting from the breakup of the former Yugoslavia: Serbia, North Macedonia and even the Bosnian Serb entity. In fact, in its 1974 Constitution, the Yugoslav regime had established “a human right to freely decide on the birth of one’s children”. It is wider than what is planned in France and less clear too. This provision survived the breakup of Yugoslavia and persisted in the Constitutions of the countries concerned.

In Cuba, abortion is also indirectly protected because “women’s sexual and reproductive rights” are guaranteed by the Constitution. In Africa, several countries refer to abortion explicitly in their Constitution, but only to grant the right to it in circumstances. “special circumstances”. In Kenya, for example, abortion is not permitted unless a health professional deems it necessary for emergency treatment or the mother’s life is in danger. In Somalia, we find a similar situation: the fundamental law says that abortion is contrary to Sharia (Islamic law). It is therefore prohibited, unless it involves saving the mother’s life.