The ceremony to seal abortion in the Constitution will be held this Friday, March 8 at noon, International Women's Rights Day.
The event will take place in front of the Ministry of Justice, Place Vendôme, and will be open to the public for the first time, as confirmed by Emmanuel Macron in a publication on X.
The President of the Republic welcomed
“French pride”
and a
“universal message”
.
Following the ceremony, the text will be named
“constitutional law of March 8, 2024”
.
France will then become the first country to officially include voluntary termination of pregnancy in its Constitution.
An ancient tradition
The sealing ceremony is a very ancient heritage dating from the Merovingians who used the seal to certify the provenance of a writing.
Today, its use is more symbolic.
Sealing has no longer been systematic since the Third Republic when
“a more distant relationship was created,”
says Benjamin Morel, lecturer at Paris 2 Assas University.
“Today, the seal is no longer necessary for constitutional reform,”
he adds
.
During the Fifth Republic, the most significant sealing remained the abolition of the death penalty, in 1981, by Robert Badinter.
Another symbolic element which should be present for the ceremony on March 8, the press, a 300 kilo machine ordered in 1810 by Cambacérès.
As its status indicates, it is the Minister of Justice who will be the last to activate it during the sealing as guardian of the historical machine.
“A political communication strategy”
In reality, the text will be in force upon publication in the official journal,
“probably the first working day following the ceremony, which constitutes promulgation”,
predicts Benjamin Morel.
What makes this ceremony unique is its openness to the public.
For Benjamin Morel, however, it must be seen as a political communication strategy.
“Don't be fooled, it's a way to pull the rug out from under your skin and mark the occasion for International Women's Rights Day
,” he warns.
This ceremony follows the vote on March 4 by parliamentarians meeting in Congress.
In Versailles, 780 votes favored the inclusion in the Constitution of voluntary termination of pregnancy.
The initiative was started by parliamentarians from various political sides in June 2022. The project was finally taken up at the end of 2023 by the government before being submitted to parliamentarians.