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Macron: France will add right to abortion into constitution by 2024

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday his government plans to enshrine abortion rights in the constitution to make them "irreversible".

Macron: France will add right to abortion into constitution by 2024
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a press conference on the second and last day of a European Union summit on October 27, 2023. Photo: Ludovic MARIN/AFP.

In an online post, Macron said a draft project would be submitted to the State Council, France’s highest administrative court, this coming week, with a view to adding the right to abortion into the country’s constitution by the end of the year.

“In 2024, the right of women to choose abortion will become irreversible,” he said.

The announcement follows a promise Macron made on March 8th, International Women’s Day, which was seen as a response to the overturning of federal abortion rights in the United States last year.

Constitutional revision in France requires either a referendum or approval by at least three-fifths of the members of both chambers of parliament united in a congress.

READ ALSO How can France’s constitution be changed

Most constitutional changes in post-war France have been approved by congressional vote.

The termination of a pregnancy was decriminalised in France in 1975 and successive laws have since aimed at improving conditions for abortions, notably by protecting the health and anonymity of women, as well as reducing the financial burden of the procedure on women.

A November 2022 opinion poll found that 89 percent of respondents were in favour of making abortion rights constitutional.

According to government figures, 234,000 abortions were carried out in France last year.

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POLITICS

New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

New Caledonia's main international airport will reopen from Monday after being shut last month during a spate of deadly unrest, the high commission in the French Pacific territory said, adding a curfew would also be reduced.

New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

The commission said Sunday that it had “decided to reopen the airport during the day” and to “push back to 8:00 pm (from 6:00 pm) the start of the curfew as of Monday”.

The measures had been introduced after violence broke out on May 13 over a controversial voting reform that would have allowed long-term residents to participate in local polls.

The archipelago’s Indigenous Kanaks feared the move would dilute their vote, putting hopes for eventually winning independence definitively out of reach.

READ ALSO: Explained: What’s behind the violence on French island of New Caledonia?

Barricades, skirmishes with the police and looting left nine dead and hundreds injured, and inflicted hundreds of millions of euros in damage.

The full resumption of flights at Tontouta airport was made possible by the reopening of an expressway linking it to the capital Noumea that had been blocked by demonstrators, the commission said.

Previously the airport was only handling a small number of flights with special exemptions.

Meanwhile, the curfew, which runs until 6:00 am, was reduced “in light of the improvement in the situation and in order to facilitate the gradual return to normal life”, the commission added.

French President Emmanuel Macron had announced on Wednesday that the voting reform that touched off the unrest would be “suspended” in light of snap parliamentary polls.

Instead he aimed to “give full voice to local dialogue and the restoration of order”, he told reporters.

Although approved by both France’s National Assembly and Senate, the reform had been waiting on a constitutional congress of both houses to become part of the basic law.

Caledonian pro-independence movements had already considered reform dead given Macron’s call for snap elections.

“This should be a time for rebuilding peace and social ties,” the Kanak Liberation Party (Palika) said Wednesday before the announcement.

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