With cold and stormy weather in southern France keeping me at home on International Women’s Day, I watched wistfully as the sunshine shone on the large crowds gathered in front of the Ministry of Justice at the Place Vendôme in Paris. We were witnessing the formalities of enshrining a woman’s right to an abortion as an amendment to the French Constitution. And I didn’t have to be there in person to join the celebration. France is definitely the pioneer in what President Emmanuel Macron described as the “beginning of a struggle” to establish the right to an abortion as a universal right everywhere.
The thundering cheers were dramatically picked up on the broadcast as President Macron announced the launch, as the very next step in this struggle, a campaign to incorporate the same right to abortions in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. 
He made it clear that France was truly ready to be the pioneer to make this a global effort . “If France,” he said, “has become the only country in the world whose constitution explicitly protects the right to an abortion in all circumstances, we will not rest until this promise is kept throughout the world.” For starters, he said ,”We will wage this battle on our continent, in our Europe, where reactionary forces first and always attack women’s rights, before going on to attack the rights of minorities, of all the oppressed, of all freedoms.”
Not only, then, is this a women’s issue, but it also spills over to strengthening the struggle against the European reactionary forces on all fronts. This certainly includes the continuing battles on immigration and the ethnic or cultural or religious diversities associated with it. As the famed French philosopher and writer Simone de Beauvoir is regularly quoted as saying, in this context, “Never forget that it will be enough for a political, economic, or religious crisis for the rights of women to be called into question. These rights are never acquired. You will have to remain vigilant throughout your life.” Thus it is, in these weeks leading up to the 2024 European Parliamentary elections, that the abortion rights issue is being featured in the varied campaign platforms of left and center.
Strategically timed in this way, President Macron opted to convene a “Congress” in Versailles, the alternative to holding a referendum for adopting amendments to the French constitution. The Congress brings together the 577 members of the French National Assembly with 248 members of the French Senate. For the amendment to be adopted, at least three-fifths, or 545 out of the 925 votes are needed. When the Congress met on Monday, 4 March, the vote was 780 in favor of the amendment, and only 72 were against it (mostly Republicans but also National Rally members). In fact, most of the resistance to the amendment came from the Republicans, who dominate in the French Senate and had initially blocked it there. They argued that it wasn’t really necessary since France already protected the right to an abortion. But they backed off when it was clear that polling showed overwhelming support for an amendment. And as for Marine Le Pen and the National Rally, it may come as a surprise that she voted in favor of the amendment, at least at this final stage, even as it is from the extremists on the right that abortion rights are being challenged elsewhere (including in the US).
The overwhelming vote in Versailles on Monday set the stage for the official “sealing” of the amendment on Friday, March 8th. It was quite a ceremony – held outside to accommodate a large crowd. The ritual included the rolling out of the heavy 19th century “press” from the Ministry of Justice. The public ceremony allowed President Macron to bask in the limelight, joined by his Prime Minister Gabriel Attal while watching the Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti turn the press to stamp the official copy of the amendment. See the official amendment as officially stamped into the constitution here.
President Macron then spoke at length (as already quoted) and paid his respects to some ten women in French history – like Simone de Beauvoir, of course, and Simone Veil, the Minister of Health in 1975 who was instrumental in ending the legal bar to abortions in France (just two years after the Roe v. Wade decision in the US). It was heartening that this list included Josephine Baker, an American woman whose success as a French dancer, singer and actress in the 1920s and 1930s was followed by her courageous role as an Allied spy against the Nazis in the 1940s. (She is, by the way, a recent inductee into the Pantheon, France’s version of a secular temple to honor “great men” and, now, six women.) And I learned something new – the name of Olympe de Gouges who led the French adoption of the “Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen” in 1791. Sadly, however, Napoleon reversed all of that, and it wasn’t until 1944 that women achieved the right to vote in France – and the right to an abortion in 1975.
One final observation about this event: Although President Joe Biden did resoundingly reaffirm his commitment to pass legislation to codify Roe v Wade during his State of the Union address on March 7th, one can argue that President Macron is deliberately spotlighting the pioneering role of France in this effort. References were even made in the amendment process to the US Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v Wade in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization in 2022 as an inspiration for this constitutional amendment. The prospects for US legislation are non-existent for the foreseeable future, and the French sponsors also referred to setbacks in Poland and Malta. So we do need a clear leader to carry on the struggle, and I am very pleased that President Macron is doing just that.
Happy International Women’s Day 2024!