In France, senate votes in favor of making abortion a constitutionally 'guaranteed freedom'

France is preparing to enshrine abortion as a constitutional right at a joint session of parliament next week, after the senate voted in favour on [28 March]. France would write into its constitution the “guaranteed freedom” of women to choose an abortion. The French government, lawmakers and senators had argued that the right to abortion needed full constitutional protection as it comes under threat in the US and other countries in Europe. After the US supreme court overturned in 2022 a 50-year-old ruling that used to guarantee abortion, senators and lawmakers in France have argued that in Europe abortion rights are also at risk of being rolled back or limited, citing countries such as Hungary, Poland, Italy and Spain. [...] The change to the French constitution is now expected to win the approval of the necessary three-fifths majority of a joint session of parliament which has been called for [on 4 March], and which is traditionally held at the Palace of Versailles. [...] In 2022, the French parliament voted to extend France’s legal limit for ending a pregnancy from 12 to 14 weeks, amid anger that thousands of women were forced to travel abroad each year to terminate pregnancies in countries including the Netherlands, Spain or England.
Read the full article here: Guardian News