Just a few days before International Women’s Day, French parliamentarians voted in an unprecedented move to include the right to abortion in the country’s Constitution. At the same time, politicians and experts warn that the right to abortion is under pressure around the world. In Europe, the right to abortion varies from country to country, in some cases it is more restrictive than in others, the media platform European Newsroom shows in an insightful article published this week and cited by Agerpres.

France’s parliament on Monday voted to enshrine the right to abortion in its constitution, becoming the first country in the world to explicitly include the protection of abortion in its basic law.

Since 1975, France has allowed abortions up to the 10th week of pregnancy. The law has since been changed to allow women to have abortions before the 14th week of pregnancy, with the cost of the procedure covered by health insurance.

President Emmanuel Macron called the action the “pride of France” that sent a “universal message,” and a special public ceremony was held in Paris on International Women’s Day on March 8 to honor the action.

France also intends to “take this fight to the European level,” a spokeswoman for the French government said on Wednesday. Priscilla Thevenot. “In 2022, the President of the Republic announced his intention to include the right to freedom of speech in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union,” she added.

The decision by French lawmakers comes after EU member states and European parliamentarians reached an agreement in February on the bloc’s rules to combat violence against women.

The World Health Organization welcomed the vote by French parliamentarians on Monday. “We welcome France’s decision to secure women’s rights and save their lives,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

However, after the vote in the French parliament, the Vatican reiterated its position against abortion. “The Pontifical Academy of Life reminds us that in an era of universal human rights there can be no ‘right’ to take a person’s life,” the Vatican said in a statement, adding to concerns already expressed by bishops of the French Catholic Church.

Reproductive rights are at risk

Last year, Macron pledged to protect abortion in the Constitution after the US Supreme Court in 2022 overturned a half-century-old right to the procedure, allowing individual US states to ban or restrict it.

At the time, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that he was “very concerned about the decision of the US Supreme Court. This is an important step back in the fight for women’s rights,” he argued in a post on X (then Twitter).

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said the right to abortion remains “at risk” around the world and “our freedoms are essentially at risk… at the mercy of decision-makers”.

Conservative counter-campaigns are targeting global progress on women’s rights, the latest “backlash” in a series dating back to the 1980s, campaigners and experts have warned ahead of International Women’s Day. Observers say progress in women’s rights has been systematically accompanied by backlash since the 1980s.

The theory of “backlash” was elaborated by American feminist Susan Faludi in her 1991 book: Backlash: The Undeclared War on American Women. She describes the strategy of conservative movements in the US after the liberalization of abortion laws and the entry of women into the labor market in the 1970s.

Violence against women is increasing

An organized and politicized counter-movement is taking away abortion rights, fueling online hate and harassment and encouraging domestic violence, researchers say.

In February, EU member states agreed on the first European law to combat violence against women. The law aims to protect women in the 27 EU countries from gender-based violence, forced marriage, genital mutilation and online harassment. The European Commission first proposed this important law on March 8, 2022, to mark International Women’s Day.

But the agreement did not contain a general definition of rape. Access to abortion should be available to rape victims, but a number of states around the world restrict abortion even in cases of rape or incest. States that opposed the definition of rape in the text of the law argued that rape does not have the necessary cross-border dimension to be considered a crime that is equally sanctioned within the bloc, thus questioning the EU’s competence on the matter.

At the end of February, the Slovenian NGO Institute 8 Bereznia launched a campaign for safe and accessible abortions across Europe. The campaign called “My voice, my choice” aims to collect 1 million signatures from EU countries and unites organizations from Spain, France, Poland, Finland and Ireland.

The organizers recognized this issue as important ahead of this year’s European elections and in the context of the spread of extremism in Europe. Like other countries, Slovenia faces increasing levels of violence against women and gender stereotypes in many areas.

The right to abortion in Europe

While the right to abortion is under increasing threat, European countries have regulations that allow early termination of pregnancy, but some are stricter than others. A selection of several countries demonstrates these differences.

Albania: In Albania, abortion has been legal since the early 1990s, and statistics show a significant decrease in the number of cases. But women’s rights groups and health professionals are paying attention to so-called sex-selective abortions. Even at the most modest estimates, thousands of girls have gone “missing” in Albania after years of elective abortions led to terminations by families who wanted boys. Despite growing awareness, deep-rooted values ​​seem difficult to overturn – and experts warn that this could lead to social imbalances.

Bulgaria: Abortion on demand was legalized in Bulgaria in 1956. In 1968, the government banned childless women from having abortions due to fears of population decline. Over the years, other restrictions were introduced, but after the fall of the communist regime, abortions on request in the first trimester of pregnancy were allowed again. Currently, a woman can have an abortion until the end of the 12th week of pregnancy.

Czech Republic: In the Czech Republic, since 1957, there has been a law allowing abortions. Thus, a woman can request an abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy, and if genetic defects are detected in the fetus, she can decide on an abortion up to the 24th week of pregnancy. pregnancy. Proposals by some parliamentarians to restrict abortions were not successful. According to a survey conducted in 2023 by the Public Opinion Polling Center of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CVVM), the vast majority of Czechs are in favor of freedom to make decisions about abortion.

Germany: Abortion in Germany is not fully legalized, but it cannot be punished in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, if the woman consults beforehand. However, the Social Democrats of the SPD, the Greens and the liberals of the VDP in the German government are considering the possibility of removing Article 218 from the Criminal Code, in which it is included.

Italy: The 1978 Law on Voluntary Abortion caused great controversy and became the object of fierce attacks in Italy. The law states that an abortion can be performed in a public health care facility during the first 90 days of pregnancy only “in special circumstances where the continuation of the pregnancy, childbirth, or motherhood poses a serious risk to the physical and mental health of the child.” woman.” The law also allows doctors and nurses to refuse military service on grounds of conscience, making access to abortion more difficult. Italy has one of the lowest abortion rates in the world.

Poland: At the moment, abortion in Poland is allowed only if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or if it threatens the health or life of the mother. Poland’s newly formed ruling coalition wants to overturn a 2020 Constitutional Court ruling that ended decades of abortion compromises influenced by judges appointed by the then-ruling Justice and Justice party (PiS), which led to a near-total ban on abortion.

Portugal: Portugal’s abortion law was liberalized on April 10, 2007, allowing abortions on demand up to the 10th week of pregnancy. Recently, the issue of a new referendum was raised during the election campaign by the candidate of the Aliança Democrática (a coalition of three conservative parties) in the next parliamentary elections on March 10, but the topic was not included by any of the political parties or coalitions running for parliament.

Romania: In Romania, abortion on demand is regulated by law (Criminal Code) and can be requested up to the 14th week of pregnancy. After the end of this period, the medical action is punishable by imprisonment or a fine and the prohibition of certain rights, with some exceptions. For non-surgical abortion (with the pill), the recommendations in the medical guidelines, combined with those in the guidelines for pharmaceuticals, suggest a limit of 9 weeks. After a pregnancy period of more than 9 weeks, this method is no longer used by doctors.

Slovenia: Slovenia is one of the few countries that has a constitutional law that supports the freedom of parents to decide about the birth of their children. Therefore, in Slovenia, abortion is legal and allowed, and the number of abortions is very low. However, the issue of abortion is often raised in political and public debates, especially in the context of a perceived consolidation of more conservative views and initiatives on the issue.

Spain: In Spain, voluntary abortion has been regulated since 2010 by a law passed during the socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The law was approved in 2023 by the Constitutional Court, which enshrined the right of women to decide “autonomously and without coercion” whether to continue a pregnancy or not, which is entitled to be enforced by the state administration. Allows voluntary termination of pregnancy in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. The law also recognizes the possibility of termination of pregnancy before the 22nd week if there is a “serious risk” of fetal pathologies or when the mother’s life is in danger.

Sweden: In Sweden, the government is currently looking at how to modernize the 1975 abortion law to make it easier for women who want to have an abortion safely at home. Already, most abortion procedures begin only in clinics or hospitals, where patients are given drugs and then completed at home. Abortions in Sweden have been legal since 1938, current legislation allows termination of pregnancy up to the 18th week.