On International Women’s Day, March 8, France officially became the first country in the world to guarantee the right to abortion in its constitution. At the same time President Emmanuel Macron, promised he “will not rest” until women across Europe have the same protection.
Macron’s first attack is intentionally on the United States of America, of all countries, but not without a specific purpose.
France 24, the French state-owned international news television network based in Paris, reported that in 2023, Macron pledged to enshrine abortion – legal in France since 1975 – in the French constitution after the US Supreme Court in 2022 overturned the half-century-old right to the procedure.
In fact, the overturning of Roe v. Wade effectively allowed individual US states to enact laws that could severely restrict or even ban abortion, potentially setting a precedent that could inspire similar actions in other countries.
Probably Macron is feeling he has won his first battle.
On March 3, Federico Baccini, writing in Eunews, an Italian publication, predicted that members of the European Parliament will be back to debate abortion as a EU fundamental right.
He envisions that after the inclusion of the right to abortion in the French constitution, the issue of introducing it into the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights as well will be reopened at the European level.
At the same time, he acknowledges there is opposition from some member states. Malta, Poland and Hungary most probably will oppose Macron.
The Charter of the Fundamental Rights of the European Union begins with the European Parliament, the European Council and the European Commission solemnly proclaiming that the peoples of Europe, in creating an ever-closer union among them, are resolved to share a peaceful future based on common values.
They also say that they are conscious of the union’s spiritual and moral heritage and declare that the union is founded on the indivisible, universal values of human dignity, freedom, equality and solidarity.
Article 1 of the EU Charter states that: “Human dignity is inviolable.” and “it must be respected and protected”.
Article 2 states that “Everyone has the right to life” and “no one shall be condemned to the death penalty or executed”.
Article 3 states that “Everyone has the right to respect for his or her physical and mental integrity” and “In the fields of medicine and biology, the following must be respected in particular:
a. the free and informed consent of the person concerned, according to the procedures laid down by law;
b. the prohibition of eugenic practices, in particular those aiming at the selection of persons;
c. the prohibition on making the human body and its parts as such a source of financial gain;
d. the prohibition of the reproductive cloning of human beings.”
Article 2 of the EU Charter states that ‘Everyone has the right to life’- Tony Mifsud
Abortion – the deliberate killing of an unborn child for any purpose – though very prevalent in many EU countries, clearly goes against all the first three articles of the EU Charter on Fundamental Rights.
There are so many other alternatives to abortion, like fostering and adoption of newborns, and compassionate services, like counselling and material assistance for women who become pregnant because of rape, incest and unplanned pregnancies.
The EU strategy on children’s rights contains the framework for EU action to better promote and protect children’s rights. It contains a set of measures for the EU to implement, addressing among others: the rights of the most vulnerable children, the unborn, and the prevention of and fight against violence. Abortion is one of the forms of violence against unborn children.
A publication by the Directorate-General for Environment of the European Commission speaks of “Guidance for protection of unborn children and infants irradiated due to parental medical exposures”. The Commission clearly recognises the unborn child. Macron does not.
Article 6 (1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of the United Nations declares: “Every human being has the inherent right to life”, while article 6 (5) declares: “A sentence of death shall not be carried out on pregnant women”. The principal reason for this provision is to save the life of an innocent unborn child.
All heads of governments and MEPs in the EU have the moral and legal obligation to safeguard the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and not tear it to pieces to please the feminist lobby in Europe, as Macron seems to be doing.
The top French political leader, again, seems set to try to dominate Europe, and probably the world, this time not with military power but with his influence; not to gain territory and build an empire but ostensibly to gain fame, glory, and votes for waging the international feminists’ waragainst the anti-abortion movement in France and all over the world.
We Europeans are in the EU all together. After the devastations of the Second World War and the deaths of so many millions of people on European soil our forefathers had so skilfully and diligently built the present European Union.
We all have the obligation to safeguard the EU and its institutions and protect and help to develop and flourish all EU citizens, including unborn children.
Tony Mifsud studied politics and social affairs in Oxford.