Constitutionalization of abortion: progress or political exploitation?

On Wednesday 8 March 2023, on the occasion of International Women’s Rights Day, President Emmanuel Macron took advantage of the national tribute paid to the lawyer and feminist activist Gisèle Halimi to announce the presentation in the coming months of a bill aimed at to affect the freedom of women to resort to voluntary termination of pregnancy in the Constitution. With one detail: this would require a broader revision of the Constitution. A statement that would suggest a broader political purpose, according to the opposition.

A mixed reception

“ The advances resulting from the parliamentary debates, on the initiative of the National Assembly then enlightened by the Senate, will allow, I hope, to include this freedom in our fundamental text in the context of the bill relating to the revision of our Constitution which will be prepared in the coming months “said Emmanuel Macron.

This decision is obviously not unanimous because it implies that the constitutionalization of abortion will not be the only subject subject to the ratification of Parliament by the President, and therefore, that it will be more difficult to obtain a consensus. For EELV Senator, Mélanie Vogel, this choice is “Democratic nonsense » which constitutes, moreover, a « hostage to the demands of feminist movements“.

In fact, if the draft revision of the constitution also includes proposals for the reform of democratic institutions, for example by moving to a seven-year mandate or reducing the number of parliamentarians, the debates promise to be much more complex and delay the implementation of real protection of this right, more fragile than ever. LFI MP for Haute-Vienne Damien Maudet expressed concern on Twitter about such an approach which would make abortion registration a political pretext for approving other measures: “ While this provision would undoubtedly be a big step forward and a strong signal for women’s rights, including it in a global review would be just a shameful manipulation: it would focus the debate on this topic to make us forget everything else..

For a specific invoice

Various exponents of the opposition and of associations, such as Mathilde Panot, president of the Lfi group in the National Assembly on the initiative of the text voted by the Assembly last November, are therefore cautious. If they welcome a major breakthrough for women’s rights, they are calling for a law dedicated solely to including abortion in the Constitution:

Contacted by our colleagues from huffpost the Elysee confirmed that this bill ” it will fit into the framework of an overall constitutional bill elaborated in a search for consensus such as the one already existing on the issue of abortion”, specifying that the text evoke the term ‘freedom'”. A terminology that had already been debated within leftist and feminist associations, while the text voted by the Senate replaced the word ” right “, present in the version adopted by the Assembly, with the word “freedom“.