France and Latin America: why is it necessary to constitutionalize women's reproductive rights?

In 2024, France should be one of the first countries in the world and the first country in Europe to constitutionally guarantee the right to abortion.

This historic decision was announced at the end of last year by President Emmanuel Macron, after the adoption of a parliamentary proposal requesting that “the effectiveness and equal access to the right to abortion” be reflected in our Constitution, and that abortion be made an inalienable right.

We will examine the proposal this January 24 in the National Assembly.

Why this request, 50 years after the legalization of abortion in France, following the adoption of the Simone Veil law in 1974?

Why now, when nothing seems to oppose a right acquired by French women half a century ago?

Because nothing is more fragile than the achievements of women in times of populism.

Also because one of the main obsessions of political conservatism is to attack women's reproductive rights.

Finally, because the global political panorama at the beginning of the year demands that we organize to defend our rights.

In the words of the French philosopher, writer and activist Simone de Beauvoir,

“It only takes a political, economic or religious crisis for women's rights to be questioned.”

In these critical moments, it is our collective responsibility to work to ensure the effectiveness and irreversibility of women's rights.

Even in the world's largest democracies, there are no guarantees.

In the United States, the conservative Supreme Court inherited from Donald Trump's mandate revoked its Roe vs. jurisprudence during the summer of 2022.

Wade Act of 1973, which had established the legal framework for abortion at the federal level.

This decision reversed fifty years of abortion protection in the United States.

Since then, abortion has been totally prohibited in 14 of the 51 states and made difficult in many others.

In Europe, both Poland and Hungary have considerably restricted this right in the last decade, due to the rise to power of conservative forces.

In Latin America, several countries have made significant progress in recent decades, challenging the most conservative currents.

A notable example is Argentina, which in 2021 approved the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Law, allowing abortion in the first 14 weeks of gestation.

Similarly, Colombia enabled legal termination of pregnancy until week 24 in 2022. However, the most recent victories of Latin American feminist movements such as the Marea Verde are also vulnerable.

There are no guarantees that these advances will be definitive.

The dizzying political changes in the region threaten to undermine the progress achieved.

With the notable exception of Mexico, where the criminalization of abortion was declared unconstitutional last year, most Latin American countries could see such a setback.

In Argentina, the rise to power of Javier Milei, who has openly expressed his skepticism towards the protection of women's rights, should alert and worry us.

Many other countries in the region have still not managed to modernize their legislation to guarantee women's health and their right to dispose of their bodies and lives.

The most notable case, or in any case the one that touches me the most personally, is that of the Dominican Republic, where the combined pressure of the Catholic and evangelical churches blocked the reasonable request that three grounds be recognized for allowing abortion (

ie

a risk vital that affects the woman, the fetus or a pregnancy resulting from rape).

With today's vote, France intends to send a universal message of solidarity to all women who see their freedom violated in the face of the risk of pendulum movements in the world.

As a French-Dominican politician, representative of the French in Latin America and the Caribbean, I consider that it is necessary to rely on the progress, achievements and dynamics of both continents to consolidate women's rights and guarantee their irreversibility.

The recent collaboration between France and Mexico at the Generation Equality Forum (GEF), under the auspices of the UN, was a great step forward.

Now it is our job to transform these commitments into concrete actions.

I solemnly call on my Latin American colleagues to act to ensure the inclusion of these rights in their national constitutions.

I believe that it is our duty as parliamentarians to work to protect the progress made in recent decades and protect women's rights against any threat.

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