A l’occasion de mon déplacement à Oslo pour la 8ème conférence internationale des parlementaires pour les populations et le développement (ICPD) en tant que membre du Conseil exécutif du Forum parlementaire européen (EPF), j’ai eu l’honneur d’intervenir en session plénière pour partager l’expérience française de la constitutionnalisation de l’IVG. J’ai rappelé à cette occasion le combat collectif que cette avancée représente mais aussi la nécessité d’aller plus loin pour garantir ensemble l’accès à cette liberté fondamentale. Retrouvez ci-dessous mon intervention.

Seul le prononcé fait foi. 

[France just made history enshrining abortion rights in its constitution last month. This sent a strong signal across the world. How did the environment evolve encouraging such unprecedented legislation and remarkable success story?]

Thank you very much for your question. First of all, please excuse my English, I’m French. But that’s going to force me to keep it short and get straight to the answer to your question.

I’d like to start by sharing a few figures with you:

• 24, it’s the number of countries that prohibit abortion.
• 41, it’s the number of countries that authorize abortion to save the life of the mother.
• 49, it’s the number of countries that allow abortion for health reasons.
• 1, it’s the number of country that has the right to abortion written into its constitution. This is France.

Saying that shows us all the work is front of us. As a reminder, legalizing abortion without conditions everywhere would prevent from more than 39 000 death and 7 millions hospitalizations each year. Saying that also passes on  this message of universalism to the world : it is possible, but with one and only one condition, a collective political will.

When we talk about this will, we often just mention it, but we don’t actually explain what it is. I’d like to share with you 3 lessons from our French experience.

1. First, we were able to identify and name the real threats to abortion every day, and throughout the world.

We see it every day, including at conferences such as the CSW just a few weeks ago: anti-choice movements are on the rise, structuring themselves, organizing themselves in word and deed.

The Roe v Wade decision from the American Supreme Court was a catalyst. It unleashed the voice of conservatives and anti-choicers around the world, making the right to abortion a freedom directly threatened by conservatives the world over.

Facing this, we must reaffirm women’s rights. To win new ones, but also to protect the ones we’ve already won. We couldn’t accept that one day in France, as is the case today in other countries, this right will be put at risk by a conservative power that would limit these rights step by step.

2. Second, we benefited from a collective mobilization to enshrine this right in our Constitution.

On the initiative of members of parliament and civil society, we have launched this fight to guarantee this right in the Constitution. Thanks to all these forces, and also thanks to the will of President Macron, we have done it.

I’d like to emphasize this collective effort, which has involved the mobilization of NGOs and committed women, as well as members of parliament from all political parties, with the exception of the extreme right, of course. A first bill was tabled by one group, then a second by another, then a third draft was found by a final group. After that, we worked with President Macron and decided to propose a wording that would meet everyone’s expectations

It has given us a social strength that justifies amending our Constitution. This supreme text is a reflection of our society. To enshrine the right to abortion in our Constitution was to say that it was the will of the whole of society

3. Third, we were clear about what this constitutionalization is and what it is not.

I’m used to say that it’s everything and nothing at the same time.

• It is nothing because it does not change existing law;
• It is everything because it creates a non-regressive protective barrier for the future by establishing the right to abortion, the right to decide about your own body, as one of the fundamental rights that must be guaranteed by a state governed by the rule of law in the 21st century. It’ also a powerful message for all the generations and all the world : there is no equality without the right of abortion. There is no real democracy without the right of abortion.

But let’s be clear, it doesn’t solve everything, especially not access everywhere.

These are the messages I wanted to share today. A triple universalism:

• This victory does not belong to a single person, but to a collective fight.
• This victory does not belong to a single country, but to all those who fight for abortion throughout the world.
• This victory is a message to the world that calls for humility, responsibility and hope, which can sometimes change the course of history.

Thank you very much for your attention.