French lawmakers on Wednesday took a first step towards anchoring access to abortion in the French constitution, a controversial project with many hurdles still to clear.
Parliament’s laws committee approved draft language that would offer women a “guaranteed freedom” to end pregnancies , stopping short of a full right to abortion.
The wording reflects a difficult balancing act for President Emmanuel Macron’s minority government, which must assemble a three-fifths majority of members in both the National Assembly lower house and Senate to change the constitution.
According to the Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti, Ministers aimed to provide “Constitutional protection for the freedom, without freezing current legislation or creating a kind of absolute, unlimited right” to abortion.
Inscribing abortion in the constitution was originally promised by Macron in March last year, in what was seen as a response to the 2022 overturning of federal abortion rights in the United States.
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