French Senate Defeats Bill to Make Killing Babies in Abortions a Constitutional Right

International   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Oct 21, 2022   |   9:54AM   |   Paris, France

French political leaders rejected legislation this month to insert a so-called “right” to abort unborn babies in their national constitution.

Christian Network Europe reports the French Senate voted 139-172 against the constitutional amendment, which some lawmakers argued was necessary in response to the United States Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in June.

According to La Croix, the bill would have added the following language to the French Constitution: “No one may infringe the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy and contraception. The law guarantees to any person who so requests free and effective access to these rights.”

Abortions are legal in France up to 14 weeks of pregnancy. However, pro-abortion political leaders, including President Emmanuel Macron, asserted that France needs a constitutional amendment to ensure that abortions remain legal for years to come, pointing to the overturning of Roe in America.

However, conservative lawmakers said the amendment is unnecessary, and they do not plan to change the country’s abortion laws. They also accused Macron of using the abortion issue to distract from other problems, like immigration, Breitbart reports.

“The reality is that [the Macron government] is carrying out a political diversion because it does not want the focus to be on the main concerns of the French people today and their difficulties, which is purchasing power, which is security, which is immigration out of control,” conservative Assemblywoman Marine Le Pen said earlier this year.

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Sen. Agnès Canayer also voted against the bill, saying there is “no reason to import into France a debate linked to American culture,” according to Breitbart.

However, abortion activists do not plan to give up. According to Christian Network Europe:

Two similar bills are waiting for the National Assembly. They are to be reviewed on November 9 and in the week of November 28, La Croix writes.

However, the pro-abortion politicians seem to be unsuccessful so far. On October 12, the Senate law commission already rejected the draft, arguing that a change of the Constitution was not justified. “The purely proclamatory and symbolic approach desired by the authors of the text puts at the heart of the news a subject on which there is no questioning in France”, the commission wrote in a press release.

In January, Macron told the European Parliament that France will lobby to add abortion to the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights. He claimed that protecting the so-called right to abort an unborn baby is a “strong value” that Europe should fight to uphold.

“We must update this charter to be more explicit on protection of the environment, [and] the recognition of the right to abortion,” Macron told European leaders at the time. “Let us open up this debate freely with our fellow citizens … to breathe new life into the pillar of law that forges this Europe of strong values.”

Abortion has been legal in France since 1975. Earlier this year, parliament voted to expand abortions, making it legal to kill unborn babies for any reason up to 14 weeks instead of 12 weeks.

According to the French Ministry of Health, there were 222,000 abortions in 2020. That number of babies dying from abortion almost certainly will increase.