Abortion laws: France, USA, Russia

As President Macron announced, from 2024, the French constitution is to include the right to abortion. If this happens, France will be the first country in the world with the right to abortion enshrined in its constitution. The amendment to the constitution is to read: “The Act defines the conditions for a woman to exercise the freedom to terminate her pregnancy.”

Virginia is the only state in the American South that did not restrict access to abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade decision. A year after the Supreme Court’s decision, the number of abortions in Virginia increased significantly – according to the Family Planning Society, an average of approximately 550 more procedures were performed there every month. The introduction of an abortion ban after the 15th week of pregnancy (or earlier) in Virginia – which will probably happen when the Republican Party wins the November elections in this state – will force patients to go even further north in the US to already overcrowded abortion centres.

The Russian authorities’ proposals aimed at limiting access to abortion are causing a stir and opposition in Russian society, which already has increasingly conservative values. Abortion procedures in private clinics are to be banned, many emergency contraceptives will become virtually unavailable to get, and the prices of others will increase. A recent regulation of the Minister of Health has already restricted the trade in abortion pills used in the first trimester of pregnancy. Local activists call the public to submit official complaints through online petitions and organise small protests.