The landmark ruling now protects abortion as a constitutional right (Picture: EPA)
France has become the first country in the world to protect the right to abortion in its constitution.
A bill to enshrine women’s right to an abortion passed today after a historic vote in a joint session of parliament at the Palace of Versailles.
The measure was promised by President Emmanuel Macron following a rollback of abortion rights in court rulings in the United States.
Mr Macron’s government wanted Article 34 of the French constitution amended to specify that ‘the law determines the conditions by which is exercised the freedom of women to have recourse to an abortion, which is guaranteed.’
This has now been passed, following the overwhelming approval of the proposal by the lower house of parliament in January.
The bill was approved by the required three-fifths majority in the joint session.
Members of the public have been waiting outside for the result (Picture: Tom Nicholson/Shutterstock)
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None of France’s major political parties represented in parliament has questioned the right to abortion, which was decriminalised in France in 1975.
The government argued in its introduction to the bill that the right to abortion is threatened in the United States, where the Supreme Court in 2022 overturned a 50-year-old ruling that used to guarantee it.
The introduction to the groundbreaking legislation read: ‘Unfortunately, this event is not isolated: in many countries, even in Europe, there are currents of opinion that seek to hinder at any cost the freedom of women to terminate their pregnancy if they wish.’
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Former French health minister Simone Veil helped to decriminalise abortion in France, and was given an honourable burial in the Pantheon after her death in 2018.
Another legendary French feminist, Simone de Beauvoir, had previously told Claudine Monteil, head of the Femmes Monde (Women in the World) association, that ‘all it will take is a political, economic or religious crisis for women’s rights to be called into question.’
Abortion rights have been called into question around the world after guaranteed abortion rights in the US came to an end in 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v Wade decision.
Roe’s overturning was made possible by three conservative judges appointed by former President Donald Trump.
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