A way forward for other countries
Another question already raised by many commentators around the world is the global impact of this legislative action by France, which still retains considerable cultural influence, especially among its European neighbors.
Indeed, encouraged by the success of the vote at the Versailles Congress and the chorus of international praise, one of the main promoters of the proposed constitutional amendment, left-wing MP Mathilde Panot, announced on March 4 that she would present a new resolution so that the right to abortion is enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. The text calls on the French government to “mobilize diplomatically with EU Member States and the European Commission to ensure that the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union guarantees the right to abortion.”
A similar resolution had already been adopted by the European Parliament in 2022 after of the decision of Dobbs of the United States, but without binding force, since the European Union does not have the power to define health policy, which remains the responsibility of the Member States.
On the other side of the Alps, pro-life organizations are already calling for mobilization to prevent the export of the French model.
“This is a tragic regression of civilization and not of progress,” wrote the Italian NGO Provita e Familia in a statement press release issued on the night of March 4. “We call on all pro-life Italians: let us prevent Italy from ending up like France by joining forces in a great civil redemption that defends the humanity of those conceived.”
A wake-up call?
The radicalization of pro-abortion movements in France appears to have had the unexpected effect of galvanizing opposition forces, who gathered in the streets of Versailles at the time of the congressional vote, and whose leaders are considering more aggressive strategies. effective and innovative to defend life.
In a editorial published in the wake of the March 4 vote, Famille Chrétienne magazine calls for inspiration from the concrete actions of American pro-lifers, who have “built birthing centers next to Planned Parenthood clinics (…) imagined mobile teams to go out to meet isolated families and help them discover, through a simple ultrasound, the reality of the ‘little piece of man’ that is being born”.
The French bishops often criticized due to their lack of audacity and their gradual withdrawal from public debates, have this time been much further vowels in the complaint of attacks on human dignity in the country, including ongoing debates over euthanasia which will resume in the coming months.
And while the young priests the death knell bells were ringing in their churches as a sign of protest in several French cities, starting with Versaillesprayer initiatives, such as the website “Go, Dream, Ask“—whose goal is to pray at least as many rosaries of reparation as there are abortions each year, in 50 different cities—are forging the spiritual weapons of the country.
The coming years could well be those of a deeper collective change in spiritual, intellectual and political consciousness, even more so when the country, like the rest of the Old Continent, is trapped in the harsh reality of demographic winter, with the number of births in 2023 at its lowest level since the end of World War II. In this sense, it has not escaped some observers the curious coincidence of Emmanuel Macron’s statement on the need to “rearm“demographically to France and the inclusion of abortion in the Constitution.
Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in National Catholic Register.