Paris, France: The France has moved a step closer to become the first state in the world to legislate abortion as a constitutional right, after parliamentarians approved a resolution in the lower house to ensure access to “the right to voluntarily end a pregnancy”.
Members of Parliament from the La France Insoumise party and Mr. Emmanuel Macron’s Centrist Alliance approved on a clause that could be added to the constitution. The clause states that, “the law guarantees the effectiveness and equal access to the right to voluntarily end a pregnancy.”
It would just take a political, economic or religious crisis for women’s rights to be questioned.
Ms. Mathilde Panot, the leader of La France Insoumise Party, stated.
Mr. Sacha Houlié, Macron’s Renaissance Party member, remarked the historical move of Parliament by stating that, “It’s a big step. But it’s just the first step.”
The Senate, the Upper House, which has a majority on the right and rejected a first proposal last month, must now vote on the resolution.
Following the US Supreme Court’s decision in June to overturn the landmark Roe V. Wade decision, which recognized a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion and legalized it nationwide, several parties in France, from the left to the centrists, started pushing for abortion rights to be written into the constitution.
337 legislators out of the 557-member National Assembly cast a vote in favour, 32 opposed, and 18 were absent.