On Wednesday, January 24, France's Assemblée Nationale will examine a draft bill to enshrine access to abortion in the Constitution. Since the November 24, 2022, vote in the Assemblée Nationale on a text originating from the ranks of the radical left La France Insoumise (LFI) party, the terms of the bill have evolved from "right to abortion" to "freedom" for women to have it performed. But there's still no guarantee that the fight to enshrine it in the Constitution will be won, as this change is provoking resistance on the right of the political spectrum.

For the second time in just over a year, the Assemblée Nationale will hear the arguments of supporters and opponents of enshrining abortion in the Constitution. This time, lawmakers will debate the appropriateness of inserting into Article 34 that "the law determines the conditions under which the freedom guaranteed to women to have access to a voluntary termination of pregnancy is exercised."

The wording has changed since the Assemblée first voted on the text, on November 24, 2022. On that day, by 337 votes to 32, MPs adopted on first reading a bill proposed by Mathilde Panot, president of the LFI group in the Assemblée, stipulating that "the law guarantees the effectiveness of and equal access to the right to voluntary terminate a pregnancy." The move came in response to the US Supreme Court's decision in June 2022 to revoke the federal protection of the right to abortion. On February 1, 2023, the Sénat, France's upper house of Parliament also adopted the LFI bill on first reading, albeit with substantial modifications. This time, the aim was to stipulate that "the law determines the conditions under which a woman's freedom to terminate her pregnancy is exercised." This marked the end of the parliamentary proceedings on this bill.

Then on March 8, 2023, in a speech paying tribute to feminist lawyer Gisèle Halimi, Emmanuel Macron pledged his support for the constitutionalization of access to abortion. And on October 29, the president announced on X that a bill to "enshrine in our Constitution the freedom of women to have access" to abortion – largely echoing the Sénat's wording – would be sent to the Conseil d'Etat, the country's highest administrative court. The choice of passing this constitutional revision by means of a bill drafted by the government, rather than one drafted by MPs, means that a referendum, unwanted by the government, could be avoided.

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