Former President Donald J. Trump indicated this week that he would likely support a federal ban on 15-week abortions, with exceptions for rape, incest and life-threatening emergencies.

Mr. Trump’s comments Tuesday on the WABC radio program “Sid & Friends in the Morning” echo earlier reports that he had privately expressed support for a 16-week ban. But saying this publicly ties him concretely to a position that has been toxic to many Republicans.

“People are now agreeing on the number of weeks of 15, and I think in terms of that, and it will work out to something that is very reasonable,” he said. “But people really agree, even the hardliners agree, it seems like 15 weeks is a number that people agree on. But I will make that announcement at the right time.”

At the same time, he said he believed abortion should be a state issue, adding that anti-abortion activists who wanted a ban earlier in pregnancy should understand that “you have to win elections.”

But while Mr. Trump used 15 weeks as a compromise, such bans are generally unpopular, based on both surveys and election results.

A KFF poll released this month found that 58 percent of Americans opposed a 16-week ban. Last year, Republicans in Virginia campaigned on the 15-week threshold — describing it, as Mr. Trump does, as a reasonable middle ground. They lost control of the state House of Representatives.

Voters have also consistently opposed abortion restrictions in states that put a referendum or constitutional amendment on the ballot, even as anti-abortion activists tried to focus the campaign on abortions later in pregnancy.

A 15-week ban would be less strict than the six-week or total bans that many Republican-led states have adopted, but it would be significantly more restrictive than the status quo that endured for nearly fifty years before the Supreme Court struck Roe v. Wade in 2022. Roe protected abortion rights until it was viable, after being amended in 1992 by Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Viability refers to the point at which a fetus can survive outside the womb – which is usually around 23 weeks, although this varies from pregnancy to pregnancy.

Mr. Trump has bragged about appointing three Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe. But until Tuesday, he had done his best to avoid saying what he would do if re-elected, even as his allies publicly expressed hope that he would take executive action to effectively ban abortion without legislation.

President Biden’s campaign quickly responded to Trump’s interview with a statement from Amanda Zurawski, who was initially denied an abortion in Texas despite life-threatening complications and is one of several women suing over Texas’ abortion ban.

“My family has been forever changed by the nightmare that Donald Trump created by overturning Roe,” Ms. Zurawski said, adding: “Trump does not ‘signal’, he does not ‘suggest’, he does not ‘tend to’ what whatever – he actively plans to ban abortion nationwide if elected, causing the same brutality and chaos I witnessed across the country.”

Arizona Democrats are eager to battle over abortion access in the state, a political battleground where they will need every advantage to support President Biden and retain a key Senate seat.

But the battle lines have become increasingly confused amid a heated legal dispute over which Republican-backed restrictions will come into effect in November.

After the party introduced a 15-week abortion ban in 2022 with virtually no exceptions, with support from anti-abortion groups, some Republicans are now trying to get that law set aside. Instead, they favor an even more restrictive 19th century law that effectively bans the procedure altogether. And some Democrats, while strongly opposed to both measures, quietly acknowledge that a near-total ban could be a boon as they seek to inspire voters to vote.

Since the Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs case, which overturned Roe v. Wade and effectively returned the issue to the states, voters have overwhelmingly supported measures aimed at protecting abortion access, even in the Republican-led states. And if the stricter ban is upheld, “there is likely to be a benefit” to Democrats campaigning for abortion access, said Tresa Undem, a pollster who studies abortion.

“Certainly, if there is a total ban, voters will be mobilized on this issue,” Ms Undem said.

The unusual dynamic stems from various courts’ interpretations of Arizona’s 15-week ban, signed by former Gov. Doug Ducey a few months before the Dobbs ruling struck down the constitutional right to abortion. Republicans and supporters of the 15-week ban had intended the legislation to make way for restrictions enacted in 1864, when Arizona was still a territory.

That law, which requires prison time for anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion and includes no exceptions for rape or incest, was reinstated in Arizona shortly after Roe was overturned, when a district court judge said it should take precedence get on the law. the 15-week ban. But an appeals court said months later that doctors could not be prosecuted under the territorial law, effectively allowing them to perform abortions again up to 15 weeks.

Now the focus shifts to the Arizona Supreme Court, which is likely to make a final ruling on the dueling abortion ban this summer after anti-abortion groups appealed the lower court’s ruling.

Arizona Democrats are well aware of the political consequences; it seems more likely that a more restrictive law would give pro-abortion voters access to the ballot box, which could put Democrats in power. But few in the state are willing to openly acknowledge the political calculus, and Democrats emphasized that the real consequences of women’s loss of access to abortion far outweigh any strategic judgments.

“Would it be easier to continue if there were a total abortion ban in Arizona? Sure, but that would be cataclysmically bad for the next nine months for the women of Arizona and that’s just not something I want to see happen in any way shape or form,” said Democratic Party candidate Conor O’Callaghan . primary to challenge Rep. David Schweikert, a Republican from a district northeast of Phoenix.

In addition, abortion rights groups in Arizona are collecting signatures for a ballot measure that would enshrine access to abortion until “fetal viability,” or about 24 weeks, in the state constitution, returning to the standard set by Roe v. Wade. The coalition, Arizona for Abortion Access, announced in January that it had already collected 250,000 signatures. Nearly 400,000 people are needed by July to get on the ballot and put the question to voters this fall.

Opponents of the measure argue that the proposed language is too broad and would “undermine common sense safety standards and precautions,” said Olivia Escovedo, spokeswoman for It Goes Too Far, the campaign fighting the measure.

Supporters say they are confident Arizonans would approve the measure if it were put to a vote. Dawn Penich, a spokeswoman for Arizona for Abortion Access, said she had heard from people who said they wanted the government to stay out of their health care decisions.

“This is a human rights issue, this is a women’s rights issue,” Ms. Penich said. “In Arizona, people really value their freedoms and their autonomy.”

Arizona Democrats could see an advantage at the ballot box because of the prominence of the abortion debate, said Christine Matthews, a national pollster who specializes in surveying female voters in swing states. But it may not be a panacea. When abortion access measures came up in recent elections, the issue has drawn moderate and conservative voters to the polls in greater numbers, across party lines.

“A total ban brings out a much broader coalition to undo that, but voters from centrism to center-right and Republicans could say, ‘A total ban is extreme, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to vote for Biden.’ said Mrs. Matthews.

Either way, Democrats are leaning heavily on their support for abortion access, while Republicans are trying to focus on the issue. Kari Lake, the Trump ally who ran for governor in 2022 and once called abortion the “ultimate sin,” now opposes a federal abortion ban. In an interview with NBC News this monthMs. Lake, who is running for Senate, praised the 15-week ban but also seemed open to the proposed ballot measure’s abortion limit. (Ms. Lake’s opponent, Representative Ruben Gallego, a Democrat, has vowed to protect access to abortion and has repeatedly hammered Ms. Lake for her past comments.)

And Mr. Schweikert, who co-sponsored a bill in Congress that would amount to a federal abortion ban, support expressed for in vitro fertilization treatments in February after an Alabama court ruled that frozen embryos must legally be considered children, putting the practice in jeopardy. Some feared that limiting IVF, the popular fertility treatment, would be a natural consequence of the Dobbs decision, but Republicans have largely been quick to take positions in favor of IVF.

Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy, a conservative lobbying group that has supported both abortion bans in Arizona, said she expected voters in November would oppose expanding access to abortion in the state.

“Once Arizonans learn the extreme nature of this amendment, Arizonans will firmly reject it,” Ms. Herrod said, adding that they “will see that it does not reflect their position on abortion.”

The abortion debate has also divided the Arizona Legislature, which Republicans control by razor-thin margins in both chambers.

Eva Burch, a Democratic senator, couched the abortion debate in poignantly personal terms during a floor speech on Mondaywhich details the barriers she faced when trying to obtain an abortion for a recent pregnancy that she discovered had no chance of survival.

“My medical provider was forced to tell me several things that do not apply to my situation, and some of them are just transparently factually incorrect, and they are doing this because of laws passed by this legislature, as opposed to medical testimony and advice, ” said Mrs. Burch. “From where I sat, the only reason I needed to hear these things was a cruel and truly uninformed attempt by outside forces to shame, coerce and scare me.”

Vice President Kamala Harris described the flood of laws restricting access to abortion as a “health care crisis” as she visited abortion providers and staff at a clinic in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Thursday.

Ms. Harris’ visit to the Planned Parenthood clinic was believed to be the first official visit by a vice president to an abortion clinic. No presidents are known to have made such visits.

Speaking to reporters in the lobby of the clinic, which was open and treating patients, Ms. Harris attacked conservative “extremists” for passing laws restricting abortion, resulting in the denial of emergency care for pregnant women and the closure of clinics that provide reproductive health care. health care that goes beyond abortion.

“These attacks on individuals’ right to make decisions about their own bodies are outrageous and in many cases downright immoral,” she said. “How dare these elected leaders believe that they are in a better position to tell women what they need, to tell women what is in their best interest. We must be a nation that trusts women.”

The very image of the nation’s second-largest leader walking into an abortion clinic provided a vivid illustration of how the politics surrounding abortion rights have changed since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. There was a map of Planned Parenthood clinics in the lobby. in Minnesota and neighboring states. Minnesota had the most by far, with a few in Iowa. Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota were nearly barren – all have limited access to abortion since the overthrow of Roe.

For decades, many Democrats viewed positive support for abortion rights as a political risk, fearing that such a position would alienate more moderate voters who were uncomfortable with open discussion of the procedure. The party embraced cautious slogans such as “safe, legal and rare” and policies such as banning taxpayer funding of abortions.

But the fall of Roe turned that politics on its head and energized a new generation of voters, energized by their support for abortion rights. The issue has become one of Democrats’ biggest strengths, party strategists say. In campaign speeches, as he did in his State of the Union address, President Biden describes the issue of abortion rights as an issue of personal freedom and the right to make decisions about private health care.

Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster who has been polling voters about abortion for more than four decades, said she couldn’t remember a time when abortion rights were so motivating to their voters.

“It is the most important issue for Democrats at every level of office,” Ms. Lake said. “Everything from county commissioners to presidents are elected around this issue.”

The issue is on firmer ground for Democrats. Ms. Harris visited Minnesota a week after 19 percent of voters in the Democratic primary voted “unoccupied,” as many of them saw it as a protest against the government’s policies in Gaza.

After little discussion about abortion during Biden’s 2020 campaign, his strategists are embracing the issue. They have taken out ads featuring testimonials from women denied access to the proceedings in conservative states and attacked former President Donald J. Trump for appointing three of the justices who voted to overturn Roe.

Democrats’ efforts have been aided by a steady stream of lawsuits, legislation and court decisions in conservative states that restrict not only abortion but other aspects of reproductive health, including contraception and fertility treatments.

Tresa Undem, a pollster who tracks public opinion on abortion, said these actions have changed the way voters — especially women — view the government’s role in their reproductive health care.

Recent polls from KFF, a nonprofit organization focused on health policy, found that 86 percent of female voters of childbearing age believe decisions about abortions should be made by a woman, in consultation with her doctor. A large majority also want laws guaranteeing the national right to abortion, access to abortion for women facing pregnancy-related emergencies, and the right to travel to have an abortion.

“They are afraid of their own mortality,” Ms. Undem said. “And they don’t want politicians or the government to have any say in the circumstances and the reasons, the why and the when.”

Mr. Biden has pledged to restore federal abortion rights and preserve access to medication abortion, which faces new threats from a case set to be heard before the Supreme Court this month. These assurances represent a notable escalation for Mr. Biden, an observant Catholic who was caught for decades between his religious opposition to his party’s proceedings and policies.

But Mr. Biden has still expressed some discomfort with the procedure itself, often avoiding the word “abortion.”

It is Ms. Harris who has emerged as the government’s most forceful abortion rights advocate, touring the country to highlight the actions the government has taken to maintain access to abortion. She has taken a much more assertive approach than the president, holding meetings on the issue with hundreds of state lawmakers, meeting with abortion doctors and patients and speaking in plain language about the once-taboo issue.

“Please understand that when we talk about a clinic like this, it is absolutely about health care and reproductive health care. So everyone get ready for the language: womb,” she said outside the clinic in St. Paul. “Problems like fibroids. We can handle this.”

Nearly all of her stops have been in Democratic-run states that have become havens for abortion seekers as much of the South and Midwest have passed more restrictive laws.

On Thursday, at the St. Paul Health Center, Vandalia, where Ms. Harris spoke, about two dozen anti-abortion protesters stood on the street outside with signs that read “Planned Parenthood = Abortion” and “Abortion is not health care.”

A doctor at the clinic said the number of abortions had increased by 25 percent and the number of out-of-state patients had increased by 100 percent since Roe was struck down.

“Minnesota has become a bastion of access for abortion care,” said Dr. Sarah Traxler, the chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood North Central States. “Our new abortion landscape is difficult. It’s dangerous. And it puts my patients and caregivers at serious risk.”

White House officials say they have largely reached the limits of their power to protect abortion rights. Legislation codifying federal abortion rights has failed twice and has no chance of passage given the slim Democratic majority in the Senate and disagreements within the president’s own party over the scope of such a bill.

Administration officials have encouraged Democratic state lawmakers to take a proactive role on the issue. Last year, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed legislation enshrining the right to abortion into state law, an effort to ensure the procedure remains legal no matter who comes to power in the state.

The Society of Family Planning, a health research organization, found that the average number of abortions in the state has increased rose by about 36 percent in the year after the Supreme Court decision.

“What happened here in Minnesota with the reelection of the governor and the change in the state legislature has meant that these fundamental rights are intact and protected,” Ms. Harris said before leaving the clinic for an interview. Women for Biden-Harris Rally in St. Paul. “Elections are important.”

At the campaign rally later in the afternoon, Ms. Harris laid the blame for what happened after Roe on Mr. Trump, calling him “the architect of a health care crisis.”

The former president, she said, was “proud that women across our country are suffering, proud that doctors and nurses can be thrown in jail for providing care.”

Vice President Kamala Harris plans to meet with abortion providers and staff in the Twin Cities on Thursday, a visit believed to be the first stop by a president or vice president to an abortion clinic.

The appearance at a health center will be the final leg of a nationwide tour by Ms. Harris, who has emerged as the government’s most outspoken defender of abortion rights. While White House officials say they have largely reached the limits of their power to protect abortion rights, the issue has emerged as a cornerstone of their reelection strategy.

Ms. Harris plans to tour the center with an abortion provider on Thursday and highlight what the administration has done to maintain access to the procedure as conservative states impose increasing restrictions.

Minnesota has become a haven for abortion seekers since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, triggering restrictive laws and bans in neighboring states. The Society of Family Planning, a health research organization, found that the average number of abortions in the state has increased rose by about 36 percent in the year after the Supreme Court decision.

Last year, Gov. Tim Walz signed legislation enshrining abortion rights into state law, an effort to ensure the procedure remains legal no matter who comes to power in the state. Ms. Harris will be joined Thursday by Minnesota Democrats, including Mr. Walz and Rep. Betty McCollum.

The mere sight of a top Democratic official walking into an abortion clinic will provide the clearest illustration yet of how the politics of abortion rights have changed for the party — and for the nation.

For decades, many Democrats shied away from direct discussion of what their strategists said was a divisive issue. Instead, a notable number focused on the complexity, embracing slogans like “safe, legal and rare” and joining Republicans in opposing taxpayer funding of the procedure through the Hyde Amendment.

But the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade upended that old policy and created an energized coalition of voters who helped Democrats win a series of federal and state races thanks to their support for abortion rights. Recent polls from KFFa nonprofit focused on health policy, found that one in five voters when voting in 2024 said abortion was the “most important issue,” and the majority supported a law guaranteeing a federal right to abortion.

President Biden’s campaign is taking aim at abortion, running ads featuring testimonials from women denied access to the procedure in conservative states and highlighting former President Donald J. Trump’s role in appointing three of the judges who voted to To undo Roe.

Mr. Biden has pledged to restore federal abortion rights and preserve access to medication abortion, which faces new threats from a case set to be heard before the Supreme Court this month.

These assurances represent a notable escalation of the issue by Mr. Biden, an observant Catholic who was caught for decades between his religious opposition to his party’s proceedings and policies. He barely mentioned abortion rights during his 2020 campaign, a reflection of his discomfort with discussing the issue and how little his strategists believed abortion energized swing voters.

This time, Mr. Biden has framed the issue as one of personal freedom and the right to make decisions about private health care. But he has still expressed some discomfort with the procedure itself, often avoiding the word “abortion.” In his State of the Union address, he said comments prepared called for him to say “abortion,” referring to a Texas woman who could not request a procedure due to state law. Instead, he said Texas had “banned her ability to act.”

Mr. Biden prefers to discuss the issue in terms of restoring Roe through congressional legislation. Legislation codifying federal abortion rights would have little chance of passing given the narrow Democratic majority in the Senate and disagreements within the president’s own party over the scope of such a bill.

Ms Harris has taken a much more assertive approach. She has visited five states on a tour to talk about abortion rights and has portrayed the proliferation of anti-abortion laws in Republican states as a “health care crisis” for women.

Reid J. Epstein reporting contributed.

When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, it sent shockwaves that reverberated through American politics, helping Democrats avoid a Republican defeat in the midterm elections.

But there were always questions about whether the issue would continue with the same intensity. Would abortion rights continue to motivate Democrats in the 2024 elections? Or would the issue follow the path of “parental rights” for Republicans — a seemingly powerful rallying cry that quickly faded?

New poll from KFF, a nonprofit organization focused on health policy, is sending an early signal. It suggests that the Supreme Court’s ruling has fundamentally reordered American politics in a way that may be more lasting than Republicans would like.

‘The most important issue’

The KFF poll, conducted in late February, shows that the end of Roe has created a new class of energized abortion rights voters.

About 12 percent of participants said abortion would be the “most important issue” for their vote in the 2024 election. That includes 28 percent of black women, 22 percent of Democrats, 19 percent of women in states that ban abortion and 17 percent of women are of childbearing age (18-49 years). Among voters who said abortion was the most important issue, two-thirds said it should be legal in all or most circumstances.

That’s a big change. For decades, Americans who opposed abortion were far more likely describe themselves as single-issue voters. Even during the last presidential election in 2020, a larger share of voters who called themselves “pro-life” were more likely to say the issue was important to their vote than those who called themselves “pro-choice.”

Now those numbers have almost reversed, with political enthusiasm shifting to the pro-abortion rights side of the debate.

Republicans also have abortion voters

The poll showed that Republican voters are divided on abortion. About four-in-ten say they believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases and 43 percent support securing a federal right to abortion.

But the majority of Republicans still view abortion very differently than much of the mainstream public on the issue.

Eight in 10 Republicans view abortion as a “moral issue,” while 96 percent of Democrats and 84 percent of independents see it as one of “individual rights and freedoms.”

A clear majority of respondents (58 percent) do not support a national ban of 16 weeks, but most Republicans (61 percent) do support it.

Half of Republicans support a federal ban on abortion pills, compared to just a quarter of independents and Democrats.

These conservative views illustrate why Republican politicians have struggled to unite around an abortion message that works for both their base and the independent voters they need to win in battleground states.

A drumbeat full of news

In his opinion, Justice Samuel Alito argued that Roe had “sparked debate and deepened divisions.” But the Supreme Court’s decision plunged the country into a much more contentious national conversation. And a steady pace of news developments has increased the political resonance of abortion in the minds of many voters.

A ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court last month prompted several fertility clinics in the state to suspend IVF treatments. That sparked a national outcry — and a new set of tough questions for Republican lawmakers.

Such cases have heightened fears among some voters that other reproductive rights could be restricted. Less than half of Americans – 45 percent – ​​said they consider the right to use contraception to be “safe,” the KFF poll found. About four in 10 voters say this year’s election will have a “major impact” on access to contraception.

Later this month, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case challenging the availability of a widely used abortion pill. The case — and the outpouring of news coverage that is sure to follow — will once again remind voters that abortion rights will be on the ballot in November.

Trump is considering a TikTok ban

Republican leaders in the House of Representatives are moving forward with legislation that would force TikTok’s Chinese owners to sell the social media app or risk being denied entry into the United States — despite opposition from former President Donald Trump .

Trump, who promised to ban TikTok while in office, has changed course and vocally opposes the bill, a move that will test his ability to continue to undermine bipartisan legislation in Congress off the campaign trail.

Earlier today, Trump offered a rambling explanation for his reversal, saying he didn’t want to alienate young voters or empower Facebook, which he views as a mortal enemy.

In an interview on CNBC, Trump said he still considers TikTok a threat to national security, but that banning it would drive young people “crazy.”

“Honestly, there are a lot of people on TikTok who love it,” Trump said. “There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it.”

“There’s a lot of good and a lot of bad with TikTok,” he added, “but what I don’t like is that without TikTok you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook an enemy of the people. , along with much of the media.”

—Annie Karni And Jonathan Swan

Read the full article here.

Among the hundreds of guests who will fill the House chamber Thursday evening — each invited to telegraph different political messages — will be dozens of Democratic-invited reproductive rights advocates who want to center access to abortion and fertility treatments. election year.

Twenty-eight Democrats in the House of Representatives and at least seven in the Senate chose their guests because of their reproductive health experiences or advocacy backgrounds. They include the first person born in the United States through in vitro fertilization, women who relied on IVF to become pregnant, abortion providers and women who were denied abortion by state bans after learning of fatal fetal abnormalities or developing conditions that threatened their health and fertility. .

It’s all part of an effort by Democrats to emphasize their support for reproductive rights while taking advantage of the tough restrictions imposed by Republican-led states since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. It’s also a way for them to highlight how Republicans — many of whom have supported abortion bans — have proven their support the concept of fetal personality – have endorsed policies that could jeopardize access to abortion and fertility treatments.

“It is the fight of our lives. We have Republicans – they want to force women to stay pregnant, or prevent women from getting pregnant,” said Rep. Lois Frankel of Florida, who represents Dr. Cherise Felix, a gynecologist who fled Tennessee’s abortion ban to practice at a Planned Parenthood in West Palm Beach. “The threat from Donald Trump is real. It is because of him that Roe v. Wade was overturned, and we know Joe Biden will be a fighter for us.”

After the Alabama Supreme Court ruled last month that frozen embryos should be considered children, a decision that threatened access to IVF in the state, Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, invited Elizabeth Carr – the first American to laboratory was conceived. Mrs. Carr was born in 1981 in Norfolk, Virginia. (Alabama lawmakers passed a law Wednesday to protect IVF providers from criminal and civil liability.)

“It is more important than ever that we work to protect access to IVF services across the country,” Mr Kaine said in a statement.

Representative Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, the No. 2 Democrat in the House of Representatives, invited Amanda Zurawski, a prosecutor in a lawsuit against Texas abortion ban, who was only allowed to undergo the procedure after going into septic shock when her waters broke at 18 weeks of pregnancy. On Thursday, Ms. Zurawski said she turned to IVF to start a family after the infection she contracted during her previous pregnancy compromised her fertility, and that she moved her frozen embryos abroad after the ruling in Alabama, fearing a similar restriction could come into effect. down in Texas.

Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, Kayla Smith invited, who spent thousands of dollars traveling there for an abortion in 2022 after she was denied one in Idaho after learning her baby — which she insisted Thursday was “highly sought after” — had fatal defects. Ms. Smith is a plaintiff in one lawsuit filed in September challenging Idaho’s abortion ban.

Ms. Murray said it is imperative that Democrats “shine a light on the horrific consequences of Republican abortion bans, which have taken away a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions.”

Democrats in Congress have introduced legislation codify federal abortion rights and to protect access to IVF., but faced Republican opposition. Last week, Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, Republican of Mississippi, blocked the rapid passage of a bill to protect access to fertility treatments.

“It’s very clear who stands up for women and who trusts women to make decisions about their own bodies and their own health care – it’s Democrats,” said Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois, who represents Dr. Amanda Adeleye, a reproductive endocrinologist, invited. “So my reminder to voters is: remember who is looking out for your reproductive rights. They are certainly not Republicans.”

French lawmakers are expected to approve a measure on Monday that would make France the first country in the world to explicitly enshrine access to abortion in its constitution.

To implement the constitutional amendment, three-fifths approval is needed from the assembled lawmakers from both houses of Parliament. But with 90 percent of lawmakers backing the measure in previous votes, the vote is widely seen as a formality before a celebration in the regal setting of the Palace of Versailles, where the joint session of Parliament is held.

The amendment would declare abortion a “guaranteed freedom” overseen by Parliament’s laws. That means future governments would not be able to “dramatically change” current laws that fund abortions for women who want them up to 14 weeks into their pregnancy, French Justice Minister Éric Dupond-Moretti said.

The impetus for the change was the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022. But it also reflects the broad support for abortion in France, which has built up over the years, and a successful campaign by a coalition of feminist activists and lawmakers.

“We are saying today that we do not envision a democratic society without the right to abortion — that it is not an accessory, but the core of our society,” said Mélanie Vogel, a Green Party senator who is a major force behind the bill. “We are no longer France without the right to abortion.”

In an interview, Ms. Vogel said: “I want to send a message to feminists outside France. A year ago everyone told me this was impossible.” She added: “Nothing is impossible if you mobilize society.”

The city council of Paris has placed a screen on Trocadéro Square – near the building where members of the United Nations General Assembly signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 – to Live broadcast a “historic victory for women’s rights.”

The Episcopal Conference, which represents the Catholic Church in France, was against the amendment, as do activist anti-abortion groups. But in a country where calls for protest regularly bring hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets, opposition has been remarkably sparse.

If the day goes as expected, France will become the first country in the world to explicitly write abortion access into its constitution, five constitutional experts said.

“It’s not about reproductive choices or the right to have children; it is a completely different language when you say access to abortion,” says Anna Sledzinska-Simon, professor of comparative constitutions and human rights law at the University of Wroclaw in Poland. “The French call it by its name – that is crucial.” She added: “The whole world is watching.”

The amendment also broadens the country’s founding text, written by men for men, while ignoring their dependence on women, constitutional experts say.

“It’s a big milestone because it sets the stage for this idea that constitutions were about men’s autonomy,” Ruth Rubio-Marín said. author of a book on gender and constitutions. “Women’s role as citizens was made essential and defined as breeders and caretakers,” she said. “That was omitted. It was simply adopted as part of the modern society that was being built.”

Other constitutions, especially in younger democracies like Ecuador, have expanded their scope to include issues such as support for caregiving and the equal division of domestic labor. But they often remain ambitious rather than feasible, said Ms. Rubio-Marín, who teaches constitutional law at the University of Seville in Spain.

“For this to happen in the old world, in an established democracy where the constitution is taken seriously – in that way it is historic,” she said.

France decriminalized abortion in 1975, with a temporary law that limited access to health services that terminated a pregnancy. Since then, the law has become permanent and continually expanded to the point that it is now considered one of the most liberal in Europe. This includes the right to fully funded abortions for women and minors, up to fourteen weeks’ gestation, on request, with no waiting period and no required counseling sessions.

Later abortions are permitted if the pregnancy poses a risk to the woman’s physical or mental health or if the fetus has certain abnormalities.

After the Covid pandemic hit, France quickly ensured that women seeking abortions could still get virtual medical consultations, says Laura Rahm, a researcher at the Central European University in Vienna who spent five years blocking access to abortion in France investigated. European study.

“A system always shines or cracks when it is put under pressure,” she says. The French system shone brightly, she said.

Still, studies shows that 17 percent of women travel outside their region – called departments in France – for abortion services, sometimes due to a growing shortage of medical facilities locally.

And while the law states that women should have the choice between medical or surgical abortions, in practice that is not the case, says Sarah Durocher, national co-president of Le Planning Familial, a French equivalent of Planned Parenthood.

Including the “guaranteed freedom” to have an abortion in the constitution means that will have to change, she said.

“This will lead to other things,” Ms. Durocher said, noting that 130 abortion centers have closed in France in the past decade. “For example, real policies so that there is effective access to abortion.”

Despite the new amendment, French feminists say France is still a male-dominated society sexism persists.

But unlike in the United States, the issue of abortion in France is not politically charged and highly divisive. Instead, most French people believe that abortion is a basic health care provision and a women’s right. A recent one Survey in 29 countries showed the largest support for legalized abortion in France in the world after Sweden.

However, efforts to include abortion in the Constitution failed before the U.S. Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe v. Wade. This move spurred French lawmakers to protect abortion, introducing multiple bills within months. Last year, the government submitted its own bill that enshrines this in the Constitution.

Lawmakers worked with feminist organizations to mount a pressure campaign that reached directly into politicians’ homes. That’s what a senator said to the Parisian newspaper that women in his family, including his partner, were so angry that he had voted against the change the first time that he decided not to do so again.

Yet last week, members of that coalition were concerned that the Senate, dominated by conservatives, would thwart the amendment. Instead, they voted in favor of it by a vote of 267 to 50.

“We were able to create an environment where if you voted against this change, it meant that as a legislator you wanted to preserve the right to potentially ban abortion in the future,” Ms. Vogel said. “So if you’re not against abortion, you had no reason not to vote for it.”

She added: “That story permeated society.”

Ségolène Le Stradic contributed to the reporting.