French government wants to take the fight over abortion to the European Union

Two days after the French Legislature voted in favor of introducing the voluntary interruption of the pregnancy in the Constitution, the spokesperson for the Executive, Prisca Thevenot, assured this Wednesday that they want to raise “the fight against abortion at the European level.”

In a press conference at the end of the Council of Ministers, Thevenot stated that the French president, Emmanuel Macron, already tried in 2022 to have abortion integrated into the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

He did so in a speech given on January 19 before the European Parliament in which he presented the priorities of the French presidency of the EU and one day after the Maltese Roberta Metsola, a well-known anti-abortionist, was elected president of the European Parliament.

The Executive spokesperson did not specify whether they will insist on this route again, but the Minister of Equality, Aurore Bergé, indicated that they want the voluntary interruption of pregnancy to be included in that text.

However, they did not clarify whether they will support the parliamentary resolution that the deputies of the leftist La Francia Insumisa will present to request that the right to abortion be inscribed in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Last Tuesday, the French Government achieved a great parliamentary victory by introducing a constitutional reform that includes the guarantee of abortion.

To achieve this, in a legislature marked by division and in which the Executive lacks an absolute majority, he managed to unite the will of a good part of the parliamentary arc, from the traditional conservative opposition, to the most radical left, through to the extreme right.

Although now some differences appear on some points, such as the conscience clause of doctors, which the left wants to soften and the right intends to maintain.