Right to abortion: in France in the Constitution, denied in many areas of the world

The right to abortion is officially included in the French Constitution. The parliamentarians voted together in Congress. French President Macron's objective is to make the exercise of this freedom irreversible. The inclusion of this right in the Constitution makes it more difficult to repeal, an ordinary law would not be enough, a constitutional reform would be needed which has a longer and more complex process. France it is the first country in the world to make the right to terminate a pregnancy constitutionalhowever, the right to conscientious objection is not a constitutional right, although it remains in the ordinary law according to which abortion is legal within 14 weeks of conception.

The step taken by France goes in the opposite direction to what has happened in recent years in many countries, in particular starting from the ruling of the US Supreme Court which overturned the previous ruling which allowed the right to abortion. The US problem is that of not having made, from the 1970s onwards, a federal law for the right to abortion and the individual states are legislating autonomously, some of them, those led by republicans in particular, with increasingly restrictive forms also linked to the heartbeat of the fetus and with limitations on women's travel to other states. However, when the laws were called for confirmation with a referendum, as in Ohio, the citizens voted to maintain the right to terminate a pregnancy. The choice of Mexico is of the opposite sign, establishing the laws prohibiting abortion as unconstitutional.

In Poland, abortion is legal only if the woman's life is at risk or if the pregnancy is the result of sexual assault or incest. Pro-European Prime Minister Donald Tusk has promised to legalize the termination of pregnancy in any case up to the twelfth week. TO Malta in 2023 the ban on abortion, which was total, was limited, but only if the woman's life is at risk. Abortion has been legal in Hungary since 1953, but the obligation to listen to the heartbeat of the fetus was introduced in 2022. In the rest of the EU countries abortion is legal with Spain which introduced last year the possibility for women aged 16 and over to voluntarily terminate a pregnancy without needing parental consent. In Italy the right is established, but often denied due to lack of doctors.

There are 39 thousand deaths every year from unsafe abortions. 40% of women of childbearing age live in countries around the world with restrictive laws regarding termination of pregnancy. Exist over 20 countries in the world where abortionaccording to data from Center for Reproductive Rights, is completely prohibited (22 to be exact as of June 2023 covering 6% of the world's female population). They are Andorra, Aruba, Congo, Curaçao, Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Iraq, Jamaica, Laos, Madagascar, Malta, Mauritania, Nicaragua, Palau, Philippines, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Suriname, Tonga and the Strip of Gaza. In San Marino there is still no law that was supposed to follow the referendum that said yes to abortion.

In 77 states, the data is always from June 2023, pregnancy termination can be accessed in specific cases. I am 50 countries allow abortionbut only if it is necessary to preserve health of the woman (physical, but for some nations also mental). In other countries, termination of pregnancy is only permitted in certain circumstances, such as rape, incest, fetal malformationand in some cases the explicit consent of the spouse or parents is required.