(ZENIT News / Paris, 04.03.2024).- On Monday, March 4, the French National Assembly and the Senate voted in favour of including abortion as a Constitutional Right. The measure forms part of a country’s Constitution for the first time. After the referendum on the norm, the Eiffel Tower was illuminated with the words : “My body, My choice.”
In a press release, published on the French Episcopate’s Website, the French Bishops said: “As Catholics, we must always remain servants of the life of each and all, from conception to death, artisans of respect for every human, which is always a gift given to all, to support those that choose to keep their child, including in difficult situations — and we are looking for new ways to do so — surrounding with our respect and our compassion those who have taken recourse to abortion. Let us ask for grace with humility and urgency. Let us pray especially so that our fellow-citizens rediscover the taste for life, to give it and to receive it, to accompany it, to have and raise children.”
Holy See Academy also Pronounces Itself
For its part, the Pontifical Academy for Life issued a note stating:
In regard to the inclusion in the French Constitution of the guarantee of women’s freedom to abort, the Pontifical Academy for Life supports the position of the French Episcopal Conference (FEC).
On February 29, the FEC reiterated that “abortion, which continues being from the beginning an attack against life, cannot be seen exclusively from the perspective of a woman’s rights.” It laments that in the debate initiated, no mention was made of a measure to support those that want to keep their child.”
The Pontifical Academy for Life reiterates that, precisely in the era of Universal Human Rights, the “right” cannot exist to do away with a human life.
The Pontifical Academy for Life calls on all Governments and all the Religious Traditions, to do what is possible so that in this phase of history, the protection of life becomes an absolute priority, with concrete steps in favour of peace and social justice, with effective measures for universal access to resources, to education, to health. The particular vital situations and the difficult and dramatic contexts of our time must be addressed with the instruments of a legal civilization that seeks, above all, the protection of the weakest and vulnerable.
Humanity’s first objective is the protection of human life in a world free of conflicts and lacerations, with science, technology and industry at the service of the human person, and of fraternity.
For the Catholic Church, “the defense of life isn’t an ideology, it’s a reality; a human reality that involves all Christians, precisely for being Christians and for being humans.” (. . . . ). ”It’s about acting at the cultural and educational level to transmit to the future generations the attitude of solidarity, of care, of welcome, knowing well that the culture of life is not the exclusive patrimony of Christians, but that it belongs to all those that, working in the building of fraternal relations, recognize the self-worth of each person, including when he/she is fragile and suffers.” (Pope Francis, General Audience of March 25, 2020).
French politician Marine Le Pen pointed out that President Macron was only instrumentalizing the topic to distract from the most important and urgent matters. And she added: “no one is putting at risk the right to abortion in France.”
