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Navyaa Jain
Apr 19
Protecting American Abortion: Learning from France’s Landmark Legislation
Photo by Hans Lucas/AFP
Introduction
June 24, 2022, the day the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, significantly influenced the lives of women beyond the United States. Since that day, abortion politics have been highlighted worldwide, with countries across the world closely watching the United States and following with their own response. Influenced by the loss of reproductive rights in the states, France recently became the first country in the world to explicitly guarantee abortion as a constitutional right. While abortion is largely legal across Europe and has been legal in France since 1975, French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to better protect abortion rights following abortion instability post-Dobbs (“France Makes Abortion a Constitutional Right” 2024). France’s step to protect abortion is not only the strongest in the world, but it also has the potential to catalyze better abortion protection worldwide. Furthermore, if this sparks a measured shift in global opinions, American advocates for abortion could see unprecedented progress in their own conversations with lawmakers.
Shifts in Global Abortion Law
Since the twentieth century, abortion has been restricted by countries for two reasons: the dominant religion has sought to denounce the practice as a sin, or to restrict women’s rights. By the end of the twentieth century, 98% of countries permitted the practice if it was to save a woman’s life. However, the proportion of countries that allowed it based on other grounds was significantly lower: 64% allowed it for women’s mental health, 43% in cases of sexual assault or incest, 33% for social or economic reasons, and only 27% allow it purely upon request (Berer 2024). Countries like the United States vaguely fit these categories, as certain states have entirely free access to abortion, while others have completely banned the procedure, making it only available in extreme cases such as rape. Conversely, France’s constitutional right ensures that abortion is available for anyone regardless of their reason.
Recently, there has been a spike in advocacy for abortion rights in countries within the European Union, such as Croatia, Britain, and San Marino (Associated Press 2024). While many of these measures were implemented before France’s own change to their abortion politics, they will be impacted by the new constitutional amendment. Britain is set to vote on expanding abortion access later this month, an indication of whether France’s amendment will be the most liberal of Europe, or if it is simply the first in a series of abortion access provisions.
The global abortion trend is also toward legalization, as countries have shifted to decriminalize or legalize the practice. Out of the 60 countries that have recently made changes to their abortion laws, all but four countries, such as the United States, have expanded the grounds on which women can obtain abortions (“Abortion Law: Global Comparisons” 2024). The reasons for this expansion are vast, but most focus on maternal health and access to safe abortions, whereas countries that further restrict abortion are guided by conservative or religious ideals, such as Poland and the United States (Berer 2024). Crucially, these regulations and restrictions are all handled in ways beyond statute law or constitutional amendments, such as judicial rulings, customary or religious law, and clinical/medical ethics codes. It is this weakness that makes the right to abortion vulnerable and ever-changing.
Protecting American Abortion
A lack of protection for abortion is the core reason for the United States' troubles and the issue that President Macron primarily hoped to address. Despite the country’s legalization of abortion in 1975, he hoped to further protect the right and place it at a level that would be difficult to overturn. Unlike protection through the Supreme Court or medical ethics codes, overturning a constitutional amendment takes a much larger majority of people and is subject to more checks and balances. This begs the question of why a country like the United States, which values its checks and balances as sacred, failed to codify abortion into law post-Roe.
Since Roe, public opinion has generally favored abortion, as a study from 2021 showed that 58% of Americans opposed overturning Roe, mirroring public opinion from 1989 (Becker 2022). However, the majority opinion has not been shared by lawmakers. Despite public opinion remaining stable, the politics of the Democratic and Republican parties have been volatile on abortion, as party ideologies diverged from the opinions of their voters (Becker 2022). As legislation efforts by President Clinton and Congressional Democrats became too contentious to pass, legislators forsaked the discussions of abortion policy and chose to leave the responsibility with the Supreme Court. However, this decision did not resolve the political polarization of the abortion debate. In fact, politicians began to campaign on the promise of appointing either anti-abortion or pro-abortion Justices, and abortion quickly became a reason to keep certain political parties in power. Eventually, this culminated in the appointment of three anti-abortion justices by Donald Trump and the falling of Roe in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The ruling proved that when abortion is managed by judicial rulings, it is subject to ideological swings—reemphasizing the need for abortion to be codified into law.
Protecting American reproductive and abortion rights in the same way as the French is a difficult, but necessary, political journey. To ensure that abortions in the United States are safe and accessible to all individuals, policy cannot simply be regulated by states. Pro-abortion politicians would need to be elected in both the legislative and executive branches, pushing for federal legislation that expands access to safe and legal abortion across the country. Abortion cannot just be passed as a law, but must be proposed as a constitutional amendment, which would require a much larger majority to pass. While the process is more arduous, it provides the most significant protection for abortion and builds upon the actions of the French. Approaching abortion as an issue separate from party and ideological lines, policymakers in France were able to support public opinion and protect this fundamental right. In the United States, by drawing on efforts made by French citizens and government officials, advocates will be more equipped in the fight for abortion.
Conclusion
Despite longstanding public opinion supporting access to legal abortion in the United States, the right to abortion constantly remains under threat. As France has demonstrated, abortion rights must be protected at the highest level to prevent these political vulnerabilities. Reinvigorated by France’s decision, abortion legalization advocates will be better supported in the fight for global liberalization. In the United States, the fight for abortion must move beyond the Supreme Court and replicate the constitutional amendment in France, preventing reproductive rights from being subject to ideological and party whims. With this shift, women can envision a healthier, safer, and more equitable future for their reproductive rights and beyond.
The views expressed in this publication are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect the position of The Rice Journal of Public Policy, its staff, or its Editorial Board.
Berer, Marge. “Abortion Law and Policy Around the World: In Search of Decriminalization.” Health and Human Rights, vol. 19, no. 1, June 2017, pp. 13–27.
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