France to decide on constitutional right to abortion

French lawmakers are set to vote on a historic bill that would enshrine a woman’s right to an abortion in the constitution.

Recent legal changes regarding abortion in the US have alerted activists in France

A joint session of parliament at the Palace of Versailles was set to decide on Monday on whether to give a woman’s right to abortion a place in the French constitution.

President Emmanuel Macron promised the measure in the wake of a rolling back of abortion rights by the Supreme Court of the United States.

The Elysee Palace is proposing that Article 34 of the French constitution is amended to specify that “the law determines the conditions by which is exercised the freedom of women to have recourse to an abortion, which is guaranteed.”

The National Assembly, France’s lower house of parliament, overwhelmingly approved making abortion a “guaranteed freedom” in the constitution. The country’s upper house, the Senate, did the same last Wednesday.

A congress of both houses is set to take place in Versailles, starting at 3:30 p.m. (1430 GMT/UTC), where it was expected that the measure would achieve the three-fifths supermajority needed for a constitutional change.

The bill had faced initial resistance in the right-leaning Senate.

More to come…

rc/dj (AFP, AP, Reuters)