The French Minister for Gender Equality Aurore Bergé denounced Tuesday evening the “undermining work” of Donald Trump’s American right “against women’s rights” which, according to her, led to the annulment by the Supreme Court in 2022 federal protection of abortion. “Unfortunately, the work of undermining has already been carried out in the United States. I do not know how it could go further,” judged Aurore Bergé in New York, questioned on the consequences for sexual and reproductive rights of a re-election in November of the former American president.
“Feminist diplomacy”
“The very patient work on the renewal of the (judges) of the Supreme Court, this shadow work that the Republicans and the hardest among them carried out, led to there being a majority which “exercises against women’s rights, against LGBT rights, against a certain number of fundamental freedoms. It’s obvious,” she told a few journalists.
This week, she is leading a delegation of 80 people to the UN headquarters before the Commission on the Status of Women to “bring” “feminist diplomacy” to the international community and praise the inclusion of the right to abortion in the French Constitution, a world first. “It is because there was the decision of the Supreme Court that we became aware of the absolute fragility of women’s rights, of women’s freedoms, in particular our main freedom to dispose of our body,” explained Aurore Bergé.
Abortion, one of the major themes of the 2024 American campaign
In June 2022, the highest American court overturned its famous Roe vs Wade ruling, half a century old, and thus annulled the federal guarantee for the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy. Under the mandate of Donald Trump (2017-2021), the majority of the nine judges of the Supreme Court had shifted to the right thanks to the appointments he had decided. Abortion is one of the major themes of the 2024 presidential campaign between the outgoing president, Democrat Joe Biden, and his predecessor, Republican Donald Trump.
During his State of the Union address on March 7, Joe Biden “promised” to “restore” – if he is re-elected on November 5 and he has a Congress with a Democratic majority – the federal right to abortion. In France, President Emmanuel Macron announced on March 8 that he wanted to include the “freedom to resort to” abortion “in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and to “fight for this right to become universal and effective”. His minister Aurore Bergé said he hoped for “a ripple effect” in Europe and around the world.