Constitutional Abortion Rights: Overcoming Resistance
The right to abortion should be officially enshrined in the French Constitution in 2024. Emmanuel Macron announced it on Sunday evening: a draft constitutional law will be sent to the Council of State this week, then to the Council of Ministers by the end of the year 2023. An announcement which received numerous approvals, from the right as well as the left. Only Marine Le Pen explains that constitutionalizing the right to abortion “is of absolutely no use”, the deputy and president of the National Rally group in the Assembly specifies “that no political movement, whether in the National Assembly or outside does not ask for the abortion to be called into question.
But this inclusion of the right to abortion is a victory for the associations, the collectives, the activists who are fighting so that the right of women to dispose of their bodies is finally guaranteed. Like Family Planning. In Hérault, around fifteen women come to Planning every day to ask for information, and these are often questions about abortion.
“The fact that it is a constitutional right would be a protection for us”
For Carine Favier, doctor at the University Hospital and co-president of the association in Occitanie, “we know that in other countries, the question of abortion has been called into question by a change in political orientation and therefore for us , it would be very valuable if this right were constitutional. It is still much more complicated to call into question a constitutional right than a simple law.”
“We see today that despite a law that is still favorable, there is still resistance in society. There are obstacles to access to care. There is also resistance among caregivers. Some Laws are not always applied, with, in particular, the increase in delays. And therefore the fact that it is a constitutional right would be a protection for us.”
“Nothing is ever acquired”
“We saw when Donald Trump arrived, the first decision he took was to call into question the right to abortion. We fear that any political modification unfavorable to this right would lead to a questioning cause of the law and therefore the protection of the Constitution would be a huge advantage for us for access to this right. Nothing is ever taken for granted and we have the impression that it is something that is relatively accepted by these French , what is true.
But we should not underestimate the fact that there are anti-choice people. Regularly, Planning premises are attacked, tagged, damaged by people who do not accept this right and we know that they are well organized, well financed at European and global level. So we have no illusions about the fact that a backlash is always possible. I think that even among caregivers who are a little resistant and who continue to try to dissuade women from having an abortion, the fact that it is a constitutional right is still a stronger representation, it is a point of support for women in the face of social protest which remains present today.”
Towards a reduction of the guilt of people who resort to abortion?
“Abortion is a right that has existed since 1975 and we always see that when women come, they explain to us why they have recourse to abortion, as if there was a justification to be provided to the caregiver. We , we do medical abortions in our center in Montpellier, and we realize that women always feel a little guilty about having an abortion as if they had something and it’s a decision that is nonetheless tainted by guilt. So I actually think that anything that helps to facilitate, to normalize this journey will help women to feel less guilty of having made a mistake.”
In 2022, some 21,451 abortions were carried out in Occitanie, which places the region in third position among the regions where the most voluntary terminations of pregnancies are practiced behind Île-de-France and the PACA region.
This article is originally published on francebleu.fr
