France debates plan to enshrine abortion as constitutional right

The French parliament has begun debating moves for France to become the first country in the world to enshrine abortion as a constitutional right, guaranteeing women access to the means to end a pregnancy voluntarily.

The justice minister, Éric Dupond-Moretti, told the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, on Wednesday that abortion rights were not simply a liberty like any other, “because they allow women to decide their future”.

Aurore Bergé, the minister in charge of equality and the fight against discrimination, said: “This vote will be one of the most important and remarkable of this parliament.”

But the constitutional change requires the agreement of both houses of parliament, the assembly and the Senate, and the final wording of the major constitutional change must be decided ahead of a potential vote in March.

This week, Gérard Larcher, the rightwing head of the Senate, said he did not think the right to abortion was under threat in France and that the constitution was not a “catalogue of social and society rights”.

Several parties in France, from the left to centrists, began pushing for abortion rights to be written into the constitution after the US supreme court’s decision in June 2022 to overturn the Roe v Wade ruling, which recognised a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion and legalised it nationwide.

The Socialist party’s Marie-Noëlle Battistel said in parliament: “Today is a great day for women … who are never safe from seeing their rights pushed back.” Mathilde Panot from the left’s La France Insoumise said: “Today France is speaking to the world.”

The German government on Wednesday passed a law prohibiting the harassment of women entering or leaving abortion clinics. Introduced by family minister Lisa Paus and dubbed the Gehwegbelästigungsgesetz – “pavement harassment law” – it will require Germany’s 16 states to ensure unhindered access to counselling centres and abortion clinics for women and staff. Anyone contravening the law will face a penalty of up to €5,000 (£4,275). The law was passed in reaction to a large increase in protests at the entrances of doctor’s practices, clinics and counselling centres in recent years.