France Becomes the First Country to Make Abortion a Constitutional Right

France has become the first country in the world to explicitly include the right to abortion in its constitution.

Parliamentarians voted to revise the country’s 1958 constitution to enshrine women’s guaranteed freedom to abort.

The overwhelming 780-72 vote 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.

However anti-abortion groups have strongly criticized the change, as has the Vatican.

While several other countries include reproductive rights in their constitutions – France is the first to explicitly state that an abortion will be guaranteed.

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The constitutional change was prompted by recent developments in the US, where the right to abortion was removed by the Supreme Court in 2022.

Abortion rights activists gathered in central Paris cheered and applauded as the Eiffel Tower scintillated in the background and displayed the message “MyBodyMyChoice” as the result of the vote was announced on a giant screen.

Laura Slimani, from the Fondation des Femmes rights group, said, This right (to abortion) has retreated in the United States.

And so nothing authorized us to think that France was exempt from this risk. There’s a lot of emotion, as a feminist activist, and also as a woman.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said Macron was using it to score political points, because of the large support for the right to abortion in the country.

Pascale Moriniere, the president of the Association of Catholic Families, called the move a defeat for anti-abortion campaigners.

It’s a defeat for women, she said, and, of course, for all the children who cannot see the day.