Four days after the Congress vote in Versailles, the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, on Friday March 8, placed the seal of the Republic on the law providing for the freedom to resort to voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion). in the Constitution.
“I have the honor to request that you kindly impose the great seal of the French Republic on the Constitutional Law of March 8, 2024 relating to the freedom to resort to voluntary termination of pregnancy,” declared a few seconds before the director of civil affairs and the seal, Rémi Decout-Paolini, speaking to the Minister of Justice.
After this gesture which symbolically ratifies the modification of the Constitution, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, congratulated himself in a speech that “the seal of the Republic seals on this day a long fight for freedom”. “A long fight for freedom, a fight made of tears, of drama, of broken destinies,” he continued, saluting the memory of the “fighters” Simone Veil, Gisèle Halimi and Simone de Beauvoir, among others.
The President of the Republic, who committed a year ago, to the day, to constitutionalizing abortion, also mentioned several left-wing deputies and senators who brought the text to Parliament, in particular the “rebellious” deputy. Mathlide Panot and the environmentalist senator Mélanie Vogel - whom the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, had not mentioned at the Congress last Monday in Versailles.
“We are opening a path.”
In his speech to several hundred people, Emmanuel Macron announced in particular that he wanted to include “this guaranteed freedom to resort to voluntary termination of pregnancy in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union”. If “France has become the only country in the world whose Constitution explicitly protects” the right to abortion, “we will only find rest when this promise is kept everywhere in the world,” he said.
“We will lead this fight on our continent, in our Europe where reactionary forces first and always attack the rights of women before then attacking the rights of minorities, of all the oppressed, of all freedoms.” , warned the Head of State, three months before the European elections.
While this ceremony took place on the occasion of International Women's Rights Day, the President of the Republic promised "to act to put an end to beatings, violence, feminicides, the fear that grips when We’re going home.” “Act to put an end to the prejudices which prevent these attacks which traumatize, these insults which poison. Act for these women who work more and earn less, their minds revolted by injustice,” he added.
After this speech, warmly applauded by the crowd, singer Catherine Ringer performed a Marseillaise slightly modified for the occasion in the last verse: “To arms citizens, let us march, let us sing this pure law in the constitution”. The head of state then lingered on the square, shaking hands and taking selfies before praising to the press a “humanist and universal reform” which “will make this right irreversible in our country”. “We are opening a path,” he said, defending his ambition to bring the subject to the European level: “If we don’t fight the battles, there is no chance of winning them.”
Several gatherings on the occasion of March 8
Before this ceremony, Mr. Macron placed flowers on the tombs of “great figures” of feminism who contributed to the revision of the Constitution, including Françoise Giroud, Gisèle Halimi, Joséphine Baker, Louise Michel, Simone de Beauvoir and Simone Veil.
Beyond this constitutional change, the feminist associations, invited to the ceremony, hope that this March 8 will also be "the opportunity to take to the streets" to give visibility and defend the rights of "lowly paid essential employees", “first chores” and “women victims of violence”, says Anne Leclerc, member of the collective.
Around fifty organizations, including associations and unions, are calling for a strike for work and domestic tasks, like those which took place in Spain or Iceland, to demand measures in favor of gender equality. Demonstrations are planned in nearly 200 places in France, in large cities such as Bordeaux, Lyon and Marseille, or smaller ones, such as Quimper or Belfort. In Paris, the procession left at 2 p.m. from Place Gambetta, must pass through Place de la République and will arrive at Place de la Bastille.
