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Mahesh

07/03/24 09:15 AM IST

Abortion access in France’s Constitution

In News
  • The French Parliament recently overwhelmingly approved a bill to enshrine abortion as a constitutional right at a historic joint session at the Palace of Versailles.
Major provisions of the bill
  • The amendment stipulates that “the law determines the conditions by which is exercised the freedom of women to voluntarily terminate a pregnancy, which is guaranteed.”
  • This means that future governments will not be able to drastically modify existing laws which permit termination up to 14 weeks.
  • Indicating how abortion rights have come under the scanner in many countries across Europe, the introduction to the legislation states, “Unfortunately, this event is not isolated: in many countries, even in Europe, there are currents of opinion that seek to hinder at any cost the freedom of women to terminate their pregnancy if they wish.”
  • The French Constitution has been modified over 17 times since it was adopted in 1958.
  • The last instance was in 2008 when the Parliament was awarded more powers and presidential tenure was limited to a maximum of two consecutive five-year terms in office.
  • France is the only country to currently have such a specification pertaining to abortion, although former Communist-run Yugoslavia’s 1974 constitution said that “a person is free to decide on having children” and that such a right can only be limited “for the reasons of health protection.” After its disintegration in the early 1990s, several Balkan states adopted similar measures without an explicit constitutional guarantee.
  • For instance, Serbia’s constitution in less specific terms states that “everyone has the right to decide on childbirth.”
Status in other European countries
  • Abortion is currently accessible in more than 40 European nations, but some countries are seeing increased efforts to limit access to the procedure.
  • In September last year, Hungary’s far-right government made it obligatory for women to listen to the pulse of the fetus, sometimes called the “foetal heartbeat,” before they can access a safe abortion.
  • Poland, which has some of the most stringent abortion laws in Europe, allows termination only in the event of rape, incest or a threat to the mother’s health or life.
  • Restrictions were further tightened in 2020 when the country’s top court ruled that abortions on the grounds of foetal defects were unconstitutional.
  • The United Kingdom permits abortion to 24 weeks of pregnancy, if it is approved by two doctors.
  • Delayed abortions are allowed only if there exists a danger to the mother’s life. However, women who undergo abortions after 24 weeks can be prosecuted under the Offences Against the Person Act, 1861.
  • Italy resisted Vatican pressure and legalised abortion in 1978 by allowing women to terminate pregnancies up to 12 weeks or later if their health or life was endangered.
  • However, the law allows medical practitioners to register as “conscientious objectors,” thereby making access to the procedure extremely difficult.
  • The French initiative could however embolden efforts to add abortion to the European Charter of Fundamental Rights.
Source- The Hindu

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