Macron promises to enshrine abortion rights in French constitution

At a ceremony paying tribute to the late feminist activist Gisèle Halimi, French President Emmanuel Macron promised that a draft law enshrining abortion rights in the constitution would be put forward within months.

Speaking at a national tribute to Halimi, who died in 2020 aged 93 after a long career as a lawyer, activist and politician, Macron lamented the fact that the rights of women remain fragile.

The French leader promised that an amendment to the constitution would be submitted to parliament.

"This will guarantee the freedom of women to choose abortion, and be a solemn pledge that nothing can ever limit or abolish that right because it will have become irreversible," he said.

Macron went on to say that parliamentary debate will allow the inclusion of this freedom in French fundamental law. Preparation for that debate will begin in the coming months the president said.

The US Supreme Court overturned abortion rights last year.

France's National Assembly has voted in favour of the constitutional change, but without deciding on a timeline. That vote was in November 2022.

French senators earlier this month also supported the plan but the upper chamber, where conservatives have a majority, modified the text's wording to "women's freedom" to abort, from parliament's insistence on "women's right".

Abortion was de-criminalised in France in 1975.

Halimi's controversial career

In a case in 1972, the Bobigny affair, Halimi won the acquittal of a minor who was on trial for abortion after she became pregnant as a result of rape.

Earlier, Halimi denounced the use of torture and rape by French soldiers during the Algerian war of independence.

She insisted on the need for a ban on muslim headcovering in French schools, warning that it was a debate which could lead only to widening divisions in a France already riven by questions of communiuty and republican identity.

She was a Socialist MP in the French National Assembly between 1981 and 1984. 

Macron's decision to focus on Halimi on International Women's Day sparked some resistance, even from within her family.

Her son, Serge Halimi, refused to attend Wednesday's ceremony, saying it came "at a time when the country is rising up against an extremely unfair pension reform".

Several Women's Day demonstrations across the country included protests against the retirement reform that some critics say gives women a worse deal than men.

Violaine Lucas, president of "Choosing the Cause of Women" which Halimi co-founded in 1971, said politicians were "hijacking" Halimi's legacy for their own ends.

However, Halimi's other surviving son, Jean-Yves Halimi, spoke at Wednesday's ceremony, welcoming her "place in history" thanks to the tribute.