It is the formal culmination of a long journey. According to the Official Journal (JO) of Saturday March 9, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, promulgated the constitutional law relating to the freedom to resort to voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion).
“The law determines the conditions under which the freedom guaranteed to a woman to have recourse to a voluntary termination of pregnancy is exercised,” according to the text published in the Official Journal.
Introduced in article 34 of the Constitution, this sentence makes France a pioneer in the world with such a clear reference to abortion in its fundamental text, unlike several countries where the right to abortion is declining, in United States and Eastern Europe.
In the wake of the promulgation of the law, the Keeper of the Seals, Eric Dupond-Moretti welcomed on the X platform “the end of a fight in France, and the beginning of a fight in Europe. For all women.”
The result of long debates
The formulation of “guaranteed freedom” for abortion is the result of long debates in Parliament and particularly in the Senate, where part of the right was reluctant, including President Gérard Larcher who ultimately abstained during the vote of the united Parliament. Monday in Congress in Versailles.
At the end of this historic vote, deputies and senators overwhelmingly approved the inclusion of abortion in the Constitution (780 for, 72 against).
Emmanuel Macron had made this reform one of the flagship promises of the societal aspect of his policy in recent months, embracing the various parliamentary initiatives of the left, supported by the majority.
The graves of Gisèle Halimi and Simone Veil decorated with flowers
This promulgation comes as thousands of demonstrators gathered on Friday in France to defend their rights, on the occasion of International Women's Day on March 8. “The seal of the Republic seals on this day a long fight for freedom,” declared Emmanuel Macron during a solemn event organized at Place Vendôme in Paris.
After the heavy metal press, more than 200 years old, had closed to affix the seal of the Republic to the text, ex-Rita Mitsouko singer Catherine Ringer concluded the ceremony by revisiting the “Marseillaise” − the “impure blood” which “waters our furrows” becoming “pure law in the Constitution.”
The French president also placed flowers on the graves of “great figures” of feminism who contributed to the revision of the Constitution, including Gisèle Halimi and Simone Veil.
