Since the Veil Law of 1975, abortion has been legal in France. Yet for decades, the French could boast that through legislative deliberation, they avoided importing American culture wars and its extremes into their country. The Veil Law legalized abortion, but it mostly banned second- and third-term abortions, to say nothing of the partial-birth abortions that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled were constitutionally protected in 2000. The Veil Law also provided robust conscience protections to doctors who refused to perform abortions. It’s the kind of law that American pro-lifers would be downright enthusiastic to see implemented at the federal level; it’s the kind of law that American progressives would label medieval. The French compromised and produced, they argued, a much more sensible and broadly popular law than those proposed in the United States.
Beneath this veneer of compromise, however, lurked a more sinister consensus. The pro-life movement in France lost all political representation. At best, the most conservative French politicians speak only of their personal opposition to abortion. The media, including conservative media, enforce pro-abortion unanimity. Two years ago, the legal limit for abortion on demand was extended from twelve to fourteen weeks. Nobody could seriously think that legal abortion was under threat in France.
So why would French politicians and elites suddenly unite to enshrine a right to abortion in the French constitution? The answer has nothing to do with France: It is entirely about imitating American politics.
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