French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday that his government plans to write abortion rights into the constitution to make them "irreversible". In an online post, Macron said a draft would be presented next week to the Council of State, France's highest administrative court, with a view to enshrining abortion rights in a constitution by the end of the year.
"In 2024, women's right to abortion will become irreversible," he said. The announcement comes after Macron's March 8 International Women's Day pledge, which was seen as a response to the repeal of federal abortion rights in the US last year. Revision of the constitution in France requires either a referendum or the approval of at least three-fifths of the members of both houses of parliament united in Congress. Most constitutional changes in postwar France were approved by a vote in Congress.
Termination of pregnancy was decriminalized in France in 1975, and since then laws have consistently aimed to improve the conditions for abortion, in particular by protecting women's health and anonymity, and by reducing the financial burden of the procedure on women. A November 2022 poll found that 89% of those polled supported constitutionalizing abortion rights. According to government figures, 234,000 abortions were performed in France last year. /BGNES
