The Bishops’ Conference of France reaffirms its opposition to enshrining the “right” to abortion in the French Constitution, as the Senate and National Assembly prepare to adopt a new bill.
As French lawmakers prepared to convene in a joint session in Versailles on Monday to confirm the amendment that would enshrine abortion as a constitutional right, the French bishops reiterated that abortion “remains an attack on human life” that must be protected from its inception, and that “it cannot be seen exclusively from the perspective of women’s rights.”
Constitutional amendment approved by National Assembly and Senate
The new bill presented to the Council of Ministers in December 2023 by then Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, wants Article 34 of the Constitution amended to specify that “the law determines the conditions by which is exercised the freedom of women to have recourse to an abortion, which is guaranteed.” Its latest version was approved by the French Senate on Wednesday, 28 February, after the National Assembly, the lower chamber, gave its go-ahead in January with an overwhelming majority vote. Abortion was decriminalized in France in 1975 under the presidency of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. According to President Emmanuel Macron’s government, the new measure is a response to the recent rollback on so-called abortion rights in the United States, following the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court overturning of the Roe v. Wade ruling, which had protected abortion nationally since 1973.
Protection of women and children at centre
In a statement released last week, the Bishops’ Conference of France (CEF) expressed “sadness” upon learning the outcome of the Senate’s vote on Wednesday, in which only 50 Senators voted against the proposed text. While acknowledging the difficulties that may force some women to resort to abortion, the bishops lamented that “support measures for those who would like to keep their child” have not been discussed in the debate. According to the statement, the French Constitution should instead place the “protection of women and children at its centre.”
Need to protect freedom of conscience
The bishops further assured their closeness to those “parents who decide to keep their child,” even in difficult situations, and asked for respect “for the freedom of conscience of doctors and all healthcare personnel,” praising their “courage and dedication.” The bishops of France had already expressed their strong opposition to the proposed text in a statement released during their plenary assembly in November 2023 entitled “All life is a gift.” Citing Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium they remarked that the defence of the life of unborn children is “intimately linked to the defence of all human rights.” In the past weeks, several French bishops have also taken a public stance on this issue. Archbishop Olivier de Germay of Lyon, denounced what he called “a denial of democracy,” highlighting the difficulty “of expressing opinions on this subject without incurring the risk of being targeted by the media.” In an interview with the Catholic newspaper La Croix, Archbishop Pascal Wintzer of Poitiers lamented that “death seems more protected than life is encouraged.”
Day of prayer and fasting against abortion
On Monday, the Presidency of the CEF issued a new statement ahead of the final vote in Versailles, inviting Catholics across the country to join in prayer and fasting for the rejection of the amendment. “As Catholics, we must continue to serve life from conception to death, to be artisans of respect for every human being, which is always a gift given to all others, and to support those who choose to keep their child even in difficult circumstances,” the bishops said. They noted that France is the only European country where the number of abortions has not decreased and even increased in the last two years. “Let us pray that our fellow citizens will rediscover the taste for life, for giving it, for receiving it, for accompanying it, for having and raising children,” the bishops concluded.
… Vatican on France’s abortion amendment: There cannot be a ‘right’ to take a human life
By Matthew Santucci
On Monday France became the first country in the world to enshrine the right to abortion in its basic law, a move that has been staunchly opposed by the French bishops and by the Vatican. “The Pontifical Academy for Life reiterates that precisely in the era of universal human rights, there cannot be a ‘right’ to take a human life,” the academy wrote in a March 4 statement released by the Bishops’ Conference of France following the historic vote.
The Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV) went on to appeal to “all governments and all religious traditions to do their best so that in this phase of history, the protection of life becomes an absolute priority, with concrete steps in favor of peace and social justice, with effective measures for universal access to resources, education, and health.” While noting that “the protection of human life is humanity’s first objective,” the Vatican academy acknowledged the myriad socioeconomic and personal difficulties that some families and women face.
These “life situations and difficult and dramatic contexts of our time” must be addressed by governments and civil society but in a way that is “at the service of the human person and of brotherhood” and protects “the weakest and most vulnerable,” the PAV’s statement continued. Ahead of Monday’s vote, the bishop of Versailles, Luc Crepy, joined the Bishops’ Conference of France in expressing his “sadness” and “deep opposition to this development.” The French prelate repeated the call for respect for life “from its conception to its natural death,” which, he added, “should be recognized as part of the common foundation on which our society is based.”
“I want to encourage the parliamentarians gathered in Versailles … to resist any media or political pressure, to vote conscientiously and with seriousness, and to show courage as some — whom I thank — have already done,” the bishop continued in his March 2 statement. France has a bicameral legislature composed of a lower house, the National Assembly, and the upper house, the Senate. In January, the National Assembly voted to introduce the constitutional amendment on “the freedom of women to have recourse to an abortion, which is guaranteed. ” The Senate voted for a similar measure on March 1. On Monday, March 4, a joint session of Parliament passed the bill 780-72, which was followed by a drawn-out standing ovation. Later that evening the Eiffel Tower was illuminated with the words “my body, my choice” as jubilant onlookers celebrated, a scene that was repeated all over the country. The amendment was championed by President Emmanuel Macron in 2023 and reflected a broader consensus among the French public.
According to a poll conducted by YouGov at the end of February, 66% of French people supported a constitutional amendment for abortion protection, with the largest cohort of support coming from those who are 18-34 (76%) and from women (71%). While some have suggested that Macron’s support for the amendment was motivated by political reasons, others have expressed that the vote passed due to a shared sense of “panic” by French women, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision to repeal Roe v. Wade as an example.
“We imported a debate that is not French since the United States was first to remove that from law with the repeal of Roe v. Wade … There was an effect of panic from feminist movements, which wished to engrave this on the marble of the constitution,” said Pascale Moriniere, president of the Association of Catholic Families. Mathilde Panot, head of the leftwing political party France Unbowed and a major force behind the bill, shared this sentiment in a statement to Politico. “It’s impossible to tell if abortion rights won’t come into question in the future in France,” she said.
“It’s important to capitalize when we have the public on our side.” France decriminalized abortion in 1975 and in 2022 the gestational stage limit for abortion was extended to 14 weeks of pregnancy. Pope Francis has long been a vocal opponent of abortion, calling it “murder” and saying that it is equivalent to “hiring a hitman.” In the PAV’s March 4 letter, the body cited the pope’s words from a March 25, 2020, general audience, noting: “The defense of life is not an ideology; it is a reality, a human reality that involves all Christians, precisely because they are Christian and because they are human.”
While France has long had the epithet of “the eldest daughter of the Church,” the faith has been in steep decline over the past decades. According to a poll by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies of France, only 29% of French people aged 18- 59 identified as Catholic, while among believers an estimated 8% attend Mass regularly.
