France moves toward including abortion in the constitution

This Thursday, the National Assembly passed a draft that would add the right to an abortion to the Constitution, with 337 voting in favor and 32 voting against.

The bicameral French Parliament’s upper house (the Senate), as well as a referendum of the French people, must both approve the proposed text before it may become law.

By altering the 1958 Constitution, this approval aims to ensure adequate and equitable access to the legal right to voluntary abortion.

The radical left-wing group La France Insoumise is the source of the proposition (LFI). The text’s rapporteur, Deputy Mathilde Panot, expressed her appreciation for the Lower House’s approval. The Deputy requested that the administration offer its own law without a referendum in order to expedite the procedure.

Since the Veil Law was implemented in France in 1975, voluntarily ending a pregnancy is no longer a crime. At the woman’s wish, it is currently acceptable during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.