Emmanuel Macron has promised to enshrine a woman’s right to an abortion in the French constitution by next year, after restrictions in other countries propelled France on a path towards unconditionally guaranteeing abortion rights, reports The Guardian.
The French president said on Sunday that his government would submit a draft text to France’s highest administrative court over the coming week, with the aim of making abortion rights constitutional by the end of the year.
“In 2024, the right of women to choose abortion will become irreversible,” he wrote on social media.
The announcement follows a promise made by Macron on 8 March, International Women’s Day, when he tweeted in response to the overturning of federal abortion rights in the US last year: “A universal message of solidarity to all women who today see this right violated: France will engrave in its Constitution the freedom of women to have recourse to abortion.”
The resolution was overwhelmingly backed in the National Assembly last November before being passed in the Senate in February, despite opposition from rightwing parties, which argued that France’s abortion rights were not at risk.
The revision of the French constitution is a laborious process requiring either a referendum or approval by at least three-fifths of both houses of parliament.
To avoid a referendum, the government presented its own bill, rather than one originating among lawmakers, meaning Macron can convene a special congress of both houses. Such congresses meet at the Palace of Versailles.