The France National Assembly has supported a bid to include the right of abortion in their constitution, despite the restriction of these laws by quite a number of countries. The lawmakers of France voted by a vast majority to have the law enshrined in their constitution.
The law is expected to guarantee “the effectiveness and equal access to the right to end pregnancy voluntarily.” An MP from the left wing of parliament, Mathilde Panot who is spearheading the initiative stated that, her motive for championing this change was to protect the French against the “backsliding” seen in the US and Poland.
The passage of the bill was going to be a tough process because the Upper House, the Senate, rejected a similar proposal, and it is very likely that they were not going to support the enshrinement of this law into their constitution. However, the right-parties who were greater in number than the Senate, argue that abortion rights are not under any form of threat in France.
A change in the constitution would have to go through a process of referendum, although opinion polls suggest that more than 80% of French voters are behind it. However, after securing the support of MPs in Emmanuel Macron’s reigning Renaissance party, Ms. Panot’s amendment of abortion laws went through.
Ms. Panot dedicated the votes to women in the US, Poland and Hungary; countries where abortion rights were fought for. She said that her zeal to change the content of the constitution was triggered by a vote in the US Supreme Court to terminate the national guarantee to access to abortion, which overturned the Roe v Wade ruling that has served as a precedent to the US courts since 1973.
Woman With Downs Syndrome Loses Abortion Law Appeal
Amidst all the brouhaha concerning abortion in France, a twenty-seven- year- old woman who hails from Coventry in England, Heidi Crowter, and has been diagnosed with Downs Syndrome, lost an appeal she made to the government concerning abortion rights.
Heidi indicated in her statement to the reporters that the judges did not care about her feelings, and she was angry about that. She said that the Judges of the Court of Appeal decided that, the Abortion Act was not concerned with the rights of the living disabled.
However, Heidi stated that she and her team were going to “keep fighting” and they plan to take the case further to the Supreme Court to fight there as well. Heidi expressed her displeasure in the abortion law and how the laws affected the disabled like herself.
According to the Judges, the court realizes that the termination of a pregnancy due to the diagnosis of certain disabilities like Downs Syndrome as a justification for abortion, was going to upset and offend many people with Downs Syndrome.
Heidi was seen in an upset mood after the hearing, where she told her family members, “we lost.” She also told the reporter that she did not feel valuable as a person with Downs Syndrome, and that she “felt like crying.”
“I will keep on fighting, because we have already informed and changed hearts and minds, and changed people’s opinions about the law.”
Heidi Crowter
Heidi was comforted by her mum and her husband James, who was also diagnosed with Downs Syndrome.
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