Emmanuel Macron: Abortion Is A Fundamental Right Of All Women. France Wants To Anchor Their Abortion Rights In The Constitution

A group of French deputies under President Emmanuel Macron wants to present a bill that would include the right to abortion in the French constitution.

According to the AP agency, Marie-Pierre Rixain and Aurore Bergé, MEPs, who lead the Macron's Republic in Motion (LREM) parliamentary group in parliament, informed about this on Saturday. The proposal came after the US Supreme Court overturned a decision from 50 years ago (Roe v. Wade) and deprived women of constitutional protection of the right to abortion.

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The US Supreme Court Overturned The Constitutional Right To AbortionThe US Supreme Court Overturned The Constitutional Right To Abortion

The right to abortion in France is already included in the 1975 law. A constitutional law - according to Rixain - will strengthen the right to abortion for future generations. "What happened elsewhere must not happen in France," Rixain said. Bergé said women's rights were still fragile and regularly questioned.

She pointed to the new deputies for the far-right National Association (RN), who are staunch opponents of women's access to abortion. Against this, Bergé thinks that France should not take risks in this area and should secure the right to abortion by anchoring it in the constitution.

The bill should contain a provision that would make it impossible to deprive a person of the right to abortion, according to a statement published by a pair of deputies. Bergé called the US Supreme Court's decision disastrous for women around the world.

In a radio broadcast, France Info recalled that a woman dies every nine minutes because an abortion was performed incorrectly i.e. in a dangerous way. The left-wing bloc New Ecological and Social People's Union (NUPES) announced its intention to present a similar bill.

"In order to prevent any restriction of the fundamental right of abortion in France, we will propose to NUPES, to submit a bill which would anchor this right it in the constitution," the NUPES leadership announced on Twitter.

Macron himself has expressed solidarity with women in the United States over the Supreme Court's decision, which is likely to ban abortions in about half of the US states.

Macron said the decision violated women's freedoms. "Abortion is a fundamental right of all women. It must be protected," the French president wrote late Friday night in a Twitter post.

In January, Macron mentioned his desire to include the right to abortion in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. He came up with the proposal the day after the election of Roberta Metsolova, known for her negative attitudes towards abortion, as head of the European Parliament.