French lawmakers head to Versailles Palace Monday for a special parliamentary congress – the final step in an historic process to guarantee the right for women to access abortion. The issue has been at the centre of a long political and legal tug-of-war, and comes two years after the United States Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion.
A total of 925 members of the National Assembly and the Senate will travel by bus to Versailles on Monday afternoon to vote on amending Article 34 of the constitution in order to "guarantee the freedom of women to have access to an abortion".
Three-fifths of them need to vote for the amendment in order for it to pass; and if they do, as expected, France will become the only country in the world to clearly protect the right to terminate a pregnancy in its basic law.
The government said in its introduction to the bill that the change was needed after the rollback of abortion rights in the United States, where in June 2022 the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that guaranteed access to the procedure nationwide.
Since then, some 20 states have banned abortion outright or severely restricted access, while others have moved to protect it.
'Writing history'
The move to enshrine abortion rights in the French constitution passed its biggest hurdle on Wednesday, when it was adopted by the Senate.
Elected officials and NGOs welcomed the result. Planning familial (Planned Parenthood) called it "a message of hope to feminists around the world", while hard left MP Mathilde Panot said: "We are writing history.”
The Osez le Féminisme (Dare Feminism) activist group hailed the move as a "victory for feminists and for all women who want to guarantee the right to control their body".
Alice Bordaçarre, head of Women’s rights and gender equality at the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), said taking steps to enshrine the right to abortion in the constitution would shield it from attack.
She warned that "entire rights", or pro-life, groups' voices were getting louder in France and other countries – especially the US, Brazil, and Russia – supported by the Vatican.
"Some of the conservative parliamentarians [in France] are using the same arguments," she told France 24, adding that "women’s rights are human rights".
Extra safeguard
While abortion and access to contraception has been legal in France since 1975 under the Veil Act, there was nothing preventing successive governments from rolling back the law.
Rights organisations have said enshrining the law as a constitutional right would protect it from political manipulation and fluctuations in public opinion.
"Hopefully this change will inspire other European nations to follow suit," said Anna Blus, researcher at Amnesty International specialising in women's rights.
She referred to situations in other countries such as Poland, where it is hoped the new government will take steps to lift restrictive measures on abortions.
Getting an abortion in Europe is neither easy nor guaranteed.
Discrepancies across Europe
Ninety-five percent of women in Europe live in countries that allow some access to abortion. Thirty-nine European countries have legalised access to abortion on request, albeit with some restrictions.
Six countries have strict limits in place, although only three (Andorra, Malta and San Marino) do not allow abortion at all.
But even when the procedure is legal, short timeframes, complicated administrative steps, lack of access and social stigma can block access.
"Living in Europe is taking part in abortion lottery," said Megan Clement, editor of the feminist newsletter Impact.
"Access to abortion is extremely patchy, and there is very little congruence between countries or even within countries," she told France 24. "It totally depends where you live, as to whether you have access to a safe abortion within a reasonable timeframe."
Uneven access
In 2022, the French government passed a law extending the limit on elective abortions from 12 to 14 weeks, and allowed midwives to perform the some procedures while also prohibiting doctors from using the the so-called conscience clause to refuse to do them.
Abortion care is fully reimbursed by France’s social security system, but access varies across the country, particularly in rural areas.
To address such inequalities, one suggestion is to increase access to medical abortions, using a pill that can taken at home, unsupervised.
While the World Health Organization said abortion pills could be safely self-administered within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, French law only allows medication abortion within the first nine weeks.
The method accounts for at least 90 percent of abortions taking place before 13 weeks of pregnancy and at least half of abortions overall in Europe.
