Constitutionalizing Abortion in France. A "civilizational imperative" to safeguard access and counter international backlash?

In March 2024, the French parliament enshrined the "guaranteed freedom" for a woman to terminate her pregnancy in the French Constitution. This article examines both the political trajectory that led to this constitutional change and the discourses employed by political actors to legitimize, contest, or influence the revision process. While the constitutionalizing of abortion was widely supported, the process through which the Constitution was amended hosted a series of critical debates on the relevance, necessity, and implications of such a move. We examine these debates to understand how these discussions reflect broader political and ideological frontlines. We identify and analyze the main discursive frameworks employed by political actors to justify the effort to constitutionalize abortion and influence the constitutional revision. We argue that underlying the move to constitutionalize abortion lies a "civilizational" imperative to safeguard access and counter backlash - a dynamic that reveals how abortion politics increasingly function as a core biopolitical issue leveraged by different political actors to articulate their identity and order their values.