In an address honoring the late Gisele Halimi, a pioneer for reproductive rights and a feminist activist, Macron promised to submit a constitutional reform to parliament.
This will serve as a solemn guarantee that nothing will ever restrict or abolish a woman’s right to choose an abortion since it will have become irrevocable, he said.
Women’s rights are always a precarious victory, according to Macron.
The constitutional amendment had already been approved by France’s National Assembly in November 2022, but without a timetable.
As the US Supreme Court struck down the right to an abortion in June, pro-choice activists pushed France to do the opposite as a sign of its dedication to women’s rights. As a result, the movement has escalated.
Macron was speaking at a national commemoration for Halimi, who died in 2020 aged 93 after a lengthy career as a lawyer, activist and politician.
She achieved the acquittal of a minor who was accused of having an abortion after becoming pregnant through rape in a seminal case in 1972.
However, some opposition to Macron’s decision to highlight Halimi on International Women’s Day emerged, even from inside her family.
Her son Serge Halimi, a journalist, stayed away from the ceremony, saying it came “at a time when the country is rising up against an extremely unfair pensions reform”.
The retirement change, which some critics claim gives women a worse deal than males, was the target of several Women’s Day protests across the nation.
In 1975, France decriminalized abortions.
A number of laws have been passed in an effort to make abortions anonymous, safe, and cost-free.
Nonetheless, pro-choice groups assert that women who seek abortions still frequently encounter discrimination and hostility.
AFP