Today, France will become the first country to include voluntary termination of pregnancy in its Constitution, unlike many countries where this right is restricted.
Representatives of both houses of the French Parliament – the Senate and the National Assembly – will gather at a ceremony in the Palace of Versailles where they will approve the amendment to the Constitution proposed by the government.
Four days before March 8, International Women’s Rights Day, this reform will introduce the sentence – “The law establishes the conditions under which the freedom guaranteed to women to resort to voluntary termination of pregnancy is realized” in Article 34 of the Constitution.
“When women’s rights are under attack around the world, France stands up and puts itself at the forefront of progress,” said Prime Minister Gabriel Attal recently.
It will be “the first constitutional provision so explicit on the subject, not only in Europe, but in the world,” said Leah Hoctor, an expert at the Center for Reproductive Rights, an American organization that defends abortion rights.
According to polls, the inclusion of the right to abortion in the Constitution is supported by more than 80 percent of the French population.
Opponents of abortion have announced a rally in front of the Palace of Versailles during the day, while supporters of termination of pregnancy will gather in Trocadero square. That rally in Paris was incited by city authorities and women’s rights organizations.
Abortion was legalized in France in 1975, four years after an appeal in which 343 women, including famous actresses Jeanne Moreau, Catherine Deneuve and writers Simone de Beauvoir, Marguerite Diras Marguerite Duras) and Françoise Sagan (Francoise) admitted that they had an abortion, Beta news agency writes.
