The French lower house National Assembly will vote in November on two rival proposals for enshrining abortion rights in the country’s constitution, one drafted by the hard-left France Unbowed party and the other from President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance. But even if one passes, the road ahead is rife with political divisions and complex parliamentary procedures.
French Holocaust survivor and women's rights advocate Simone Veil pushed for a law decriminalising abortion when she served as health minister. The Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Act – which became known as the "Veil Law" – was adopted on January 17, 1975.
