But that did not detract from the feeling that the vote was one for the history books.
Parisians were planning to watch the proceedings live on giant television screens in the Place des Human Rights in central Paris, with the Eiffel Tower looming large above the scene.
While other states have inferred protections for abortion rights from their constitutions, as the US Supreme Court has done Roe v. WadeFrance will be the first country to explicitly write in its constitution the protection of abortion rights. France does not interpret its constitution; He changes his constitution.
Reaction to the United States
Activists and politicians spoke transparently that this was a response to what has been happening in the United States since the Supreme Court overturned Roe in 2022 and decided that the right to abortion has no constitutional standing — and can no longer be inferred from constitutional privacy protections.
France has moved in the opposite direction, with its politicians saying that abortion is actually a matter of constitutional importance. And more than that: the right to abortion must be a “guaranteed freedom.”
“It is interesting to see French politicians saying: We will take the constitution into our own hands and away from the courts, or at least we will limit the amount of discretion the courts will have in this area,” Marie-Ruth Ziegler said. , professor of law at UC Davis and author of Roe: A History of National Obsession.
“American activists are not giving up the struggle,” said Lola Shulman, Amnesty International's advocacy officer in Paris and organizer of Monday's rally. “What is happening in France is for you and for all the women fighting for abortion rights in the world.”
What else would it take to change the US Constitution?
In both the United States and France, opinion polls show that a majority of people broadly support abortion rights. But abortion is more divisive in the United States than in France. This may be partly because France is proud of its commitment to secularism. It may also be because abortion in France has long been framed as a public health issue, rather than a privacy issue, said Stephanie Henet-Fuchez, a professor of public law at the University of Paris-Nanterre.
Changing the US Constitution would be more difficult, as it would require not only the support of a two-thirds majority in both chambers of Congress, but also ratification by at least 38 of the 50 state legislatures.
“The obstacles are more significant,” Ziegler said.
She noted that one of the “most famous examples” of how difficult it is to change the US Constitution was the failure to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, which declared sex discrimination unconstitutional in the United States. “I think most people think this is less controversial than the abortion amendment,” Ziegler said.
Since ratification, the United States Constitution has been amended only 27 times, including the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments. “That kind of perspective gives you a sense of how difficult it is to change,” said Melissa Murray, a law professor at New York University. “Today it is difficult to reach an overwhelming majority given the political divisions.” By contrast, the current French constitution, adopted in 1958, has been amended 24 times.
State constitutions in the United States can be amended more easily than the United States Constitution. Thus, Ziegler said, “For people who supported women's rights, the strategy was to gradually go through the states, and hope to eventually build toward something national.”
Since the end RoeSix states—California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Vermont, and Ohio—have approved abortion-related constitutional amendments. At least 13 additional states are trying to get abortion amendments on their ballots this year.
The future of abortion rights in France
In France, nothing will change immediately as a result of the new constitutional amendment.
Abortion was decriminalized in France in 1975. It is legal for any reason up to the 14th week of pregnancy. The amendment does not change the status quo or the content of the legislation as it stands today. For example, it is not suddenly legal for any reason to terminate a pregnancy after the 15th week of pregnancy. The French National Assembly and Senate will have to pass the legislation if they want to make this kind of change.
“It is up to Parliament to regulate this area,” Hennett-Fuchez said. But going forward, “Parliament cannot do exactly what it wants. They need to legislate in a certain direction. This trend is what would preserve the idea of guaranteed freedom.
It assumed a situation in which the new government decided that abortion was no longer fully covered by the country's health insurance system. “This is likely to be interpreted as an exaggeration of the requirement that abortion be ‘guaranteed liberty’.”
But she noted that it is difficult to predict the judicial interpretation. “In this sense, the word ‘guarantee’ is very important, but it is also relatively non-specific.”
The French constitutional amendment does not protect abortion rights in France forever. Recognizing a right does not eliminate all questions related to that right. There will still be a judicial interpretation of what “guaranteed freedom” means.
As lawmakers showed this year, constitutions can be changed.
