Women in France have been able to perform legal abortions in the country for nearly five decades, but now they want to go one step further. In reaction to the suspension of the constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy in the US, they aim to enshrine this right in the Constitution, a move that is far from simple.
After the decision of the US Supreme Court, Aurore Bergé, leader of the Renaissance – the party of President Emmanuel Macron – in the National Assembly, announced on Saturday (25) that he would present a project to include in the French Charter a provision that makes it impossible to deprive someone of the right to abortion.
The proposal, Bergé said, is also a response to the rise of the far-right in the French legislature — Marine Le Pen’s Réunion National became the third-largest political force in the most recent election.
The change would require both Houses of Parliament to agree to the idea or the project to be put to a popular referendum — which is rarer. Left wings, now the main opposition force, are in favour, and the government has also expressed support through Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne.
If it goes ahead, the proposal could be the first test of Macron’s government, which has lost an absolute majority in the legislature. “For all women, we must set this achievement in stone; Parliament must broadly support this text,” wrote Borne, the second woman to hold the office in the country’s history.
As in other Western European nations, France has seen popular approval of abortion desiccate. About 81% said they supported this right last year, according to the Ipsos institute, a figure that reached 90% in 2014. Even so, the figure exceeds that of many countries, such as those in Latin America.
Among Europeans, 40 legalized the procedure at the request of the pregnant woman. Two others — Great Britain and Finland — linked the right to social and economic issues, such as analysis of the number of children and financial profile. And five —Andorra, Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco and Poland— do not allow it in any case or only when the woman has been raped or there is a risk to her health, as in Brazil.
In Scotland, where the practice is legal until the 24th week of pregnancy – but needs to be approved by two doctors – Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon admitted that the US justice decision, which she called “catastrophic”, strengthened the position of your government in support of creating protest-free buffer zones around clinics that perform abortions or give instructions on reproductive rights.
The proposal was presented to the Scottish Parliament in May to prevent anti-abortion groups from coercing women into seeking the procedure. Sturgeon, however, was reluctant to support it and argued that it could harm freedom of expression, as it prohibits protests in some public places.
“We live in a democracy, and people are free to have different opinions about abortion, but what none of us are free to do is impede women’s right to access healthcare through harassment and intimidation,” the statement said. prime minister in a video released this Monday (27).
In Germany, discussions in the U.S., intensified since the leak of a draft Supreme Court decision signaled that magistrates would overturn the constitutional right to abortion, have given reason to lawmakers who voted last week to overturn a Nazi-era law that banned doctors to disclose and provide information about the procedure.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser hailed the decision, a move “for the safety of women and against paternalism and stigmatization.” Abortion in the country is legal until the 12th week of pregnancy, but only if the woman consults with a social counselor about the decision. Those who carry out the procedure without complying with the procedure may receive a sentence of up to three years in prison.
On the far right side, the interpretation is that the change in the US, once a reference in terms of reproductive rights, may be reflected in Europe. For German lawmaker Beatrix von Storch, of the radical AfD, “the Supreme Court sends a signal of hope to the unborn child, and it radiates to the entire West.”
