{"id":14858,"date":"2024-01-31T00:47:28","date_gmt":"2024-01-31T00:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/31\/france-on-track-to-constitutionalize-abortion-rights\/"},"modified":"2024-01-31T00:47:28","modified_gmt":"2024-01-31T00:47:28","slug":"france-on-track-to-constitutionalize-abortion-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/31\/france-on-track-to-constitutionalize-abortion-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"France on-track to constitutionalize abortion rights"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The French National Assembly has passed a historic bill that moves the country one step closer to enshrining the right to abortion in its constitution. <\/p>\n

In a vote in the lower house of the French parliament on Tuesday, 493 lawmakers voted in favor of the bill, 30 against. The bill will now move to the Senate for debate and a vote and, if approved, a special body composed of both chambers of the parliament will meet again for its adoption. <\/p>\n

The bid for constitutionalization became a priority for the French government following the overturning by the United States Supreme Court of Roe v. Wade in June 2022. The cause had been championed for several years by left-wing lawmakers and women\u2019s rights activists. <\/p>\n

When parliamentary discussions began at the lower house over the text of the proposed bill last week, the threat of France following in the footsteps of the US echoed loudly in the chamber. Almost all of the lawmakers that spoke in support of constitutionalization stressed the importance of ensuring that the reversal of reproductive rights witnessed across the Atlantic would never reach France\u2019s shores. <\/p>\n

\u201cHistory is full of examples of\u2026 fundamental rights\u2026 which everyone\u2026 believed to have been definitively acquired, and which were then swept away\u2026 as we were recently reminded by the decision of the US Supreme Court,\u201d Justice Minister \u00c9ric Dupont-Moretti said in his opening speech. \u201cWe now have irrefutable proof that no democracy, not even the largest of them all, is immune.\u201d <\/p>\n

If the bill becomes law, France will become the first country in the world to include abortion rights in its constitution, according to a constitutional expert and Guillaume Gouffier Valent, a lawmaker in charge of the law, marking a historic moment for reproductive rights in the country and around the world. <\/p>\n

France\u2019s Prime Minister Gabriel Attal hailed the vote as \u201ca great victory for women\u2019s rights,\u201d while Gender Equality Minister Aurore Berg\u00e9 called it \u201chistoric.\u201d \u201cWe have a duty to press on. For our mothers who fought. For our daughters, so that they never have to fight again,\u201d Berg\u00e9 wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. <\/p>\n

A long road to adoption<\/h2>\n

Although the bill has now been approved by the National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament, it is not yet guaranteed to pass into law. A vote will take place in the Senate in February and later in the French Congress, a special body composed of both chambers of parliament. The adoption of the bill relies on a three-fifths majority vote in the latter, which is expected to happen in time for International Women\u2019s Day on March 8, 2024. <\/p>\n

Speaking to French media, G\u00e9rard Lacher, the president of the French Senate, recently voiced his opposition to the bill, saying he doesn\u2019t think that \u201cabortion is threatened in our country,\u201d and arguing that constitutionalization is therefore unnecessary. Some right-wing lawmakers have expressed similar viewpoints, maintaining that abortion rights in France are in no imminent danger. <\/p>\n

Speaking to the National Assembly during parliamentary discussions on the bill, Gender Equality Minister Berg\u00e9 responded to these arguments, highlighting the rise in anti-abortion movements and the rollbacks on abortion rights occuring in other countries. These developments are raising alarm bells among French campaigners like Berg\u00e9, emphasizing the need to permanently safeguard abortion rights before a potential conservative shift in politics \u2013 one that\u2019s happening across the world \u2013 makes it impossible to do so. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis law is not just a symbol, because for too many women, this right is still hindered\u2026 because insidiously, throughout the world, this right is retreating,\u201d Berg\u00e9 said in her speech. \u201cThere\u2019s no reason to believe that what\u2019s happening around us can\u2019t happen here too, as if we were immune to any form of regression,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n

A national move with a universal message<\/h2>\n

France\u2019s decision to constitutionalize abortion was spurred in large part by a global context riddled with roll-backs on reproductive rights. Elsewhere in Europe, right-wing governments have been cracking down on abortion in the past few years. <\/p>\n

In eastern Europe, both Hungary and Poland have recently introduced restrictions on abortion access, measures that were frequently mentioned by France\u2019s own lawmakers during the debate in the National Assembly. <\/p>\n

At the same time, the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the US left many French women wondering if they would be next. Now, they hope France\u2019s own move to enshrine abortion rights could serve as inspiration abroad. <\/p>\n

Gouffier Valent shares Pravi\u2019s sentiment. This law \u201cmeans everything,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause of the message we\u2019re sending to French women and men for current and future generations\u2026 And the universal message we want to send to the whole world in defense of women\u2019s rights.\u201d <\/p>\n

This is a developing story. It will be updated with more details.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The French National Assembly has passed a historic bill that moves the country one step closer to enshrining the right to abortion in its constitution. In a vote in the lower house of the French parliament on Tuesday, 493 lawmakers voted in favor of the bill, 30 against. The bill will now move to the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":14859,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}