French lawmakers seek constitutional shield for abortion

PARIS -- A group of lawmakers belonging to French President Emmanuel Macron's party will propose a bill to inscribe abortion rights into the country's constitution, according to the statement by two members of parliament on Saturday.

The move comes after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 50-year-old ruling and stripped women's constitutional protections for abortion.

The right to abortion in France is already inscribed in a 1975 law relating to the voluntary termination of pregnancy within the legal framework that decriminalized abortion.

A constitutional law will cement abortion rights for future generations, said Marie-Pierre Rixain, a member of parliament and of Macron's The Republic on the Move party.

"What happened elsewhere must not happen in France," Rixain said.

The bill will include a provision that would make it "impossible to deprive a person of the right to voluntarily terminate a pregnancy," according to the statement, released by two members of the National Assembly, France's most powerful house of parliament.

Aurore Berge, the leader of Macron's party group in the parliament, said the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to revoke abortion rights is "catastrophic for women around the world."

"We must take steps in France today so we do not have any reversal of existing laws tomorrow," Berge said in an interview with the public radio station France Inter on Saturday.

Berge said French lawmakers should not take chances on fundamental rights even if they already are inscribed in law.

"Women's rights are still rights that are fragile and are regularly called into question," Berge said. She added: "We don't change the constitution like we change the law."

Macron said women's liberties are being undermined by the Supreme Court decision. "Abortion is a fundamental right for all women. It must be protected," the French president wrote in a Twitter post late Friday.

POPE CELEBRATES FAMILIES

Elsewhere in Europe, Pope Francis celebrated families Saturday and urged them to shun "selfish" decisions that are indifferent to life as he closed out a big Vatican rally a day after the U.S. Supreme Court ended constitutional protections for abortion.

Francis didn't refer to the ruling or explicitly mention abortion in his homily. But he used the buzzwords he has throughout his papacy about the need to defend families and to condemn a "culture of waste" that he believes is behind the societal acceptance of abortion.

"Let us not allow the family to be poisoned by the toxins of selfishness, individualism, today's culture of indifference and waste, and as a result lose its very DNA, which is the spirit of welcoming and service," he said.

The pope, noting that some couples allow their fears and anxieties to "thwart the desire to bring new lives in the world," called for them not to cling to selfish desires.

"You have been asked to not have other priorities, not to 'look back' to miss your former life, your former freedom, with its deceptive illusions," he said.

Francis has strongly upheld church teaching opposing abortion, equating it to "hiring a hitman to solve a problem." At the same time, he has expressed sympathy for women who had abortions and made it easier for them to be absolved of the sin of undergoing the procedure.

The Catholic Church holds that life begins at conception and must be protected and defended until natural death.

TRUDEAU WARNS ON RIGHTS

Closer to the U.S., Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned Saturday that the U.S. Supreme Court decision could lead to the loss of other rights and indicated his country would continue to allow Americans to get abortions in Canada.

Trudeau called the court's decision "horrific" and voiced concern that the ruling could someday allow a rollback of legal protections for gay relationships, including the right for same-sex couples to marry.

"We know that this is an extremely, not just scary, but disheartening time for so many women," Trudeau said.

"Women for generations have fought for more rights in the United States, (only) to see this setback, to worry as well about how this can be expanded to more rights be taken away in the United States," he said.

"This is a reminder of how we need to be unequivocal in our defense of people's rights, in not taking anything for granted, in staying vigilant, and always standing up for woman's rights, for LBGT rights, for the rights of people who are disenfranchised and marginalized," he added.

Asked if his government would help American women seeking abortions in Canada, Trudeau did not directly respond, but said: "Everyday Americans who find themselves in Canada access our health care system in Canada and that's certainly something that will continue."

Trudeau vowed to continue to stand up for woman's rights in the U.S. and elsewhere.

"We have a commitment in Canada to ensure, first of all, that every women has full, safe legal access to the full suite of sexual health and reproductive services, including safe and legal abortions and we've been working hard to increase access to women across the country," Trudeau said.

Information for this article was contributed by Rob Gillies and Nicole Winfield of The Associated Press.

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