France Lawmakers To Make Abortion A Constitutional Right Of Every Woman

 French lawmakers are expected to vote on Monday in favour of incorporating the right to abortion into the country's constitution, a move widely supported by the public.

 The congress at Versailles, consisting of both houses of parliament, is expected to secure the necessary three-fifths majority, overcoming initial resistance in the right-leaning Senate.

If approved, France would stand as the only country globally explicitly safeguarding the right to terminate a pregnancy in its fundamental law. President Emmanuel Macron committed to enshrine abortion rights in the constitution last year, responding to the 2022 US Supreme Court decision that overturned a longstanding right to the procedure.

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France's lower-house National Assembly in January overwhelmingly endorsed the constitutional inclusion of abortion as a "guaranteed freedom," followed by the Senate's approval on Wednesday.

 Reflecting on the historical perspective, Claudine Monteil, head of the Women in the World association, noted that when political campaigning began in 1971, the idea of abortion rights being written into the constitution seemed unimaginable.

Monteil, a signatory to the 1971 "Manifesto of the 343," recalled the pivotal role of women who admitted to illegally ending pregnancies, shedding light on the societal shift. Abortion became legal in France in 1975 under the advocacy of health minister Simone Veil, a women's rights icon.

Simone de Beauvoir had cautioned about potential challenges to women's rights, predicting that political, economic, or religious crises could threaten them. 

The recent actions of the US Supreme Court, according to Monteil, served as a wake-up call, prompting renewed focus on women's rights globally.

President Macron hailed the Senate's "decisive step" and promptly called for the parliamentary congress on Monday. This marks a significant constitutional change, with the last similar instance occurring in 2008 under former president Nicolas Sarkozy, involving reforms such as term limits for presidents and enhanced safeguards for press independence.