Meloni and Macron clash on abortion language at G7 summit

CNN —

The crowning document from a meeting of G7 leaders in Italy has been released with a veiled reference to abortion after French President Emmanuel Macron clashed with Italy’s prime minister over the specific language to include on abortion rights.

The Group of Seven’s summit declaration on Friday referred to “comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights for all” but did not include the word “abortion” itself – a contrast to the group’s previous communique, released after the 2023 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, which called explicitly for “access to safe and legal abortion and post abortion care.”

American officials said US President Joe Biden pushed to keep in language about reproductive rights after the summit host, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, sought to strip some language from the document. Friday’s communique appeared to be a diplomatic solution, with the statement endorsing the Hiroshima text without reproducing it.

The document emphasizes the seven nations’ “commitments in the Hiroshima Leaders’ Communiqué to universal access to adequate, affordable, and quality health services for women, including comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights for all,” the communique reads.

The annual gathering’s communique sets out the bloc’s values and agenda for the year ahead. Several previous summits’ communiques have also stopped short of using the word “abortion,” calling instead for access to sexual and reproductive health services.

‘I regret it, but I respect it’

Negotiations over this year’s language caused a public clash on the sidelines of the summit between Meloni and Macron. Asked by an Italian journalist on Thursday how he felt about a G7 statement “without the word abortion,”