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green wave
As US Backslides, French Celebrate Historic Abortion Protections
"France saw what happened in the U.S. and decided to do the RIGHT thing—enshrine abortion in its Constitution," said one advocacy group.
Mar 05, 2024
As U.S. President Joe Biden garnered fresh condemnation from rights advocates for his latest comments on abortion care on Monday, the Place du Trocadero in Paris was crowded with people celebrating an overwhelming vote by French lawmakers in favor of enshrining abortion rights in their country's constitution.
The French Parliament voted 780-72 to add an amendment to the constitution stating that there is a "guaranteed freedom" to obtain abortion care in France.
"The law determines the conditions by which is exercised the freedom of women to have recourse to an abortion, which is guaranteed," the amendment reads.
Demonstrating that the fight to protect abortion rights "has no borders," several legislators wore green scarves to the vote, symbolizing solidarity with the "Green Wave" that has seen advocates successfully push for reproductive freedom in Latin American countries.
The vote made France the first country to affirm a constitutional right to abortion care since 1974, when the former Yugoslavia amended its constitution.
The move was applauded by the United Nations high commissioner on human rights.
Abortion was first made legal in France—albeit without a constitutional right—in 1975, and the right is supported by more than 80% of the public.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said the two houses of Parliament sent "a message to all women: your body belongs to you."
French Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti suggested the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning in 2022 of Roe v. Wade, which for nearly five decades had affirmed that people in the U.S. had the right to abortion care, made it clear that amending the French constitution was necessary to reflect the values of the vast majority of people in France.
“We now have irrefutable proof that no democracy, not even the largest of them all, is immune" to attacks on reproductive rights, he said.
The Eiffel Tower was emblazoned with the words, "My body, my choice" as supporters rallied in Paris to mark the historic vote—but across the Atlantic Ocean, an interview with Biden in The New Yorker included a comment in which the president, who has repeatedly said he has personal objections to abortion care but believes Roe should have been upheld, denigrated the idea embraced by the French lawmakers.
"I've never been supportive of, you know, 'It's my body, I can do what I want with it," Biden told the magazine, sparking renewed anger among reproductive justice advocates.
Biden's comments came weeks after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that a frozen embryo created via in vitro fertilization had the same rights as a living child, prompting some Republicans to attempt to distance themselves from the decision even as supporters of forced pregnancy and "fetal personhood" laws openly embraced it.
Nearly half of U.S. states now ban abortion care or restrict it earlier in pregnancy than the standard set by Roe v. Wade. At least 15 states ban the procedure in "almost all circumstances," according toThe New York Times. Republicans have advocated for a nationwide 15-week abortion ban, and former President Donald Trump—now the presumptive GOP presidential nominee—reportedly supports a 16-week ban.
Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnes Callamard said the vote in France on Monday was "of huge significance given the rollback of this essential right around the world."
"The United States has shown how devastatingly dangerous and retrogressive it is to undermine abortion as a right," said Callamard. "In Europe, there are still countries such as Poland and Andorra, where access to abortion is highly restricted and where those fighting for this right face prosecution. Today's vote in France should pave the way for stronger protection of access to abortion elsewhere."
"Enshrining abortion in the constitution is a high-water mark for women's rights and a testament to years of tireless campaigning by so many," she added. "It sends a message of hope and solidarity to women's groups and to all defenders of abortion and other sexual and reproductive rights."
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'Green Wave Continues' Across Latin America as Mexican Supreme Court Decriminalizes Abortion
"We live in a world where it's feasible that many American women may soon find that crossing the border into 78% Catholic Mexico may be their best option for obtaining an abortion," said one journalist.
Sep 07, 2023
Mexico on Wednesday became the latest Latin American country to leave behind federal criminal penalties for abortion care, marking the latest success of the "Green Wave"—the pro-abortion rights movement that has helped pressure lawmakers to legalize abortion care in conservative, largely Catholic countries including Argentina and Colombia in recent years.
The Supreme Court said that federal laws banning abortion care are unconstitutional and violate "the human rights of women and people with the ability to gestate."
The ruling comes exactly two years after the court unanimously ruled that a law in the northern state of Coahuila, which subjected people who had abortions to up to three years in prison, was unconstitutional.
Federal public health agencies and institutions will now be required to provide abortion care, regardless of state laws, although rights advocates noted that even in states that have decriminalized abortion, law enforcement agencies have continued to investigate people for ending pregnancies.
Although it will take more legal action to decriminalize the procedure in 20 states where abortion still carries penalties at the state level, Nadine Gasman, president of the National Institute for Women, called the ruling a "big step towards gender equality and women's freedom."
The Green Wave—named for the green bandannas worn by advocates who have assembled at huge reproductive rights rallies—saw a major success in Argentina in 2020 when the Senate passed a law legalizing abortion. Colombia's Supreme Court also decriminalized abortion care in 2022, and green wave protests have taken place in countries such as Chile and Peru, where public outcry last month pushed the government to allow an 11-year-old girl to access an abortion after she was raped by her stepfather.
As abortion restrictions have begun falling across the region, which is heavily influenced by the Catholic Church, nearly two dozen states in the U.S. have banned or heavily restricted abortion care since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.
The New York Times reported Thursday that the bans in states including Texas have pushed people to seek care in neighboring states that have expanded access, with the number of abortions provided in New Mexico, Kansas, and Colorado rising by more than 60% in the first six months of 2023.
As the Texas Tribune has reported, people who live in southern Texas have also increasingly sought care across the border in Mexico, purchasing inexpensive medications that can be taken at home to end a pregnancy at drugstores in border towns.
Wednesday's ruling may have further "ripple effects" in the state, where abortion care is almost entirely prohibited, reported the Tribune.
"We live in a world," saidMississippi Free Press editor Ashton Pittman, "where it's feasible that many American women may soon find that crossing the border into 78% Catholic Mexico may be their best option for obtaining an abortion."
Dr. Anu Kumar, president of the international reproductive rights group Ipas, said pro-forced pregnancy lawmakers in the U.S. "should take note—we are now outliers in the world."
"Mexico is now part of a group of countries leading on reproductive freedom," said Kumar, "whereas the United States is denying it."
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