Abortion was officially added as a “guaranteed freedom” to the French Constitution on Friday, March 8th, on Women’s Day. But for French President Emmanuel Macron, this is just the first step; he now wants the right to have an abortion to be added at the European level in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
An official ceremony was held on Friday, March 8th at the Place Vendôme in Paris, at the Ministry of Justice, to mark the addition to the Constitution of the Fifth Republic of a “guaranteed freedom to have recourse to abortion.” Emmanuel Macron took advantage of the occasion to make a new announcement: he hopes that the French precedent will set an example and that a right to abortion will henceforth be recognised at the European level. In his view, this should be enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights—a legally binding document that brings together the most important personal freedoms and rights of EU citizens. Macron believes that when it comes to abortion on the European continent, “nothing can be taken for granted and everything must be defended.”
In his speech, the President of the French Republic used messianic overtones to explain his plan. Praising the fact that “France has become the only country in the world whose Constitution explicitly protects” the right to abortion, he added: “We will not rest until this promise is kept throughout the world.”
With three months to go before the European elections, Macron explained that he wanted to lead the fight against the “reactionary forces” at work on the European continent: “We will lead this fight on our continent, in our Europe where reactionary forces first and always attack women’s rights before then attacking the rights of minorities, of all the oppressed, of all freedoms.”
“Beyond Europe, we will fight to ensure that this right becomes universal and effective,” he eventually added.
Responding to the President’s invitation, Valérie Hayer, head of the Renaissance government party’s list for the European elections, pushed forward the debate in Parliament on the inclusion of abortion in the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. A discussion is due to take place on Thursday, March 14th at her initiative. Reconquête MEP Nicolas Bay commented on X on the vote paving the way for this discussion: 143 in favour, 135 against, 26 abstentions. The abstentions included 12 members of Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National who, if they had voted against, would have been able to postpone the debate.
Opening the debate does not mean that inclusion in the Charter is decided, but the fight will certainly be vigorously waged in the coming months by abortion supporters in the European institutions.
