In a nationwide address Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron said the rights of women to access abortion care should be added to the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. Photo by Gonzalo Fuentes/EPA-EFE
In a nationwide address Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron said the rights of women to access abortion care should be added to the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights.
Macron made the comments during an emotional speech in French at the Place Vendôme in Paris to mark International Women’s Day, where he also raised red flags over the erosion of womens’ rights in some of the world’s “great democracies.” Advertisement
Macron did not mention the United States by name but seemingly referenced the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision to eliminate the federally protected right to abortion.
The speech came just days after French lawmakers overwhelmingly passed a law guaranteeing a woman’s right to abortion, becoming the first country in the world to enshrine that right in its constitution.
The law gives women in France a “guaranteed freedom” to choose whether or not to seek out the procedure.
“Today is a very big day for our republic,” Macron said in French to open the speech, which was preceded by the formal signing of the law using a19th century press to stamp the change on the country’s constitution in front of a hushed crowd at the famous Paris landmark. Advertisement
“Today is not the end of the story, it is the beginning of a fight,” he said, adding that many of those fighters were in attendance Friday, drawing applause.
“If France has become the only country in the world whose constitution explicitly protects the right to an abortion in all circumstances, we will not rest until this promise is kept throughout the world. We will wage this battle on our continent, in our Europe, where reactionary forces first and always attack women’s rights.”
A video preceding the speech paid tribute to Marie-Louise Giraud, who was executed by guillotine in occupied France by the Vichy government after performing 27 abortions between 1940 and 1942.
Macron also began by praising the historical efforts of French philosopher and feminist activist Simone de Beauvoir, who coined the term the “second sex” to refer to the societal view of women in the 20th century.
Macron acknowledged that passing legislation guaranteeing abortion in France was not high on the agenda just a few years ago, but that the direction of the global community made the move “necessary and urgent.”
“Everywhere, even in the world’s great democracies, in neighboring countries and here in Europe we’re seeing a rollback on women’s rights,” Macron said Friday, while again calling for similar protections to be added to the EU charter. Advertisement
“Womens’ rights are reduced. People who are in power refuse to see women choose for themselves.”
