On this 50th anniversary of the loi Veil, which legalized abortion, France honors Simone Veil's fight and reaffirms the importance of the right to make decisions about one's own body.
This right is fundamental to women's health, life and freedom, and to the achievement of full equality between men and women.
The inclusion of the right to choose in the French Constitution on March 8, 2024, was a historic step forward. The Constitution extends the highest protection to the right to an abortion.
The universal decriminalization of abortion is a priority for France. As the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs told the UN General Assembly, France is committed to protecting sexual and reproductive rights and health. This is one of its feminist foreign policy priorities. Both the rights of women and girls and gender equality are central to our foreign policy and will be the focus of the feminist diplomacy conference that France will be hosting this coming June.
France is also committed to including the right to an abortion in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. It is time for this right to be enshrined as a fundamental law, one that is acknowledged and fully protected within the European Union.
This is all the more necessary at a time when a number of countries, including certain EU member states, are placing restrictions on abortion access, whether indirectly, through the widespread use of conscience clauses by doctors, for example, or directly, through binding legal constitutional provisions (criminalization, defense of the notion that “the life of the fetus begins at conception,” requiring women to bear all the costs of the procedure, etc.).
In its activities abroad, France will be guided by its international strategy on sexual and reproductive health and rights. We have pledged to act at the highest political level, in all forums, in our bilateral exchanges and in multilateral bodies to ensure that the right to abortion is recognized as a fundamental right and to take measures to promote this right worldwide. At the Generation Equality Forum, France also pledged to support programs that provide access to contraceptives through the UNFPA Supplies Partnership, and through funding for programs and projects that promote access to safe abortions, such as the Organisation du Dialogue pour l'Avortement Sécurisé (ODAS) in French-speaking Africa.