France has become the first country in the world to include the right to abortion in its constitution explicitly. This means that women in France will have the “right to abort” a pregnancy if they “feel like they do not want to have the baby.”
French Parliamentarians voted to revise the country’s 1958 constitution to enshrine women’s “guaranteed freedom” to abort with an overwhelming 780-72 vote that saw a standing ovation in the parliament in Versailles when the result was announced.
President Emmanuel Macron described the move as “French pride” that had sent a “universal message”. Anti-abortion groups have strongly criticized the change, as has the Vatican. Abortion has been legal in France since 1975, but polls show around 85% of the public supported amending the constitution to protect the right to end a pregnancy.
Read Also: Advocates Want Safe Abortion Legalized to Reduce Maternal Deaths
Both houses of France’s parliament, the National Assembly and Senate, had separately adopted a bill to amend Article 34 of the French Constitution, but the amendment needed final confirmation by a three-fifths majority in the special joint session. The measure specifies that “the law determines the conditions by which is exercised the freedom of women to have recourse to an abortion, which is guaranteed.”
And while several other countries include reproductive rights in their constitutions – France is the first to state that an abortion will be guaranteed explicitly. It becomes the 25th amendment to modern France’s founding document, the first since 2008.
Abortion rights are more widely accepted in France than in the United States and many other countries, with polls showing around 80% of French people back the fact that abortion is legal.
“We’re sending a message to all women: your body belongs to you and no one can decide for you,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal told lawmakers ahead of the vote.
Read Also: Should Safer Abortion Be Legalized In Kenya?