French lawmakers have enshrined access to abortion in the country’s constitution in a global first that advocates of the move said was needed to prevent any future restrictions on reproductive rights.
A large majority of France’s two parliamentary chambers took the historic vote on Monday at the palace of Versailles to add to the constitution a specific article that guarantees the “freedom?.?.?.?of women to have recourse to a voluntary termination of pregnancy”.
The language will make it much harder for abortion rights to be limited, as has occurred in countries such as the US and Poland with the complicity of conservative governments, said Mélanie Vogel, a senator for the Green party who has co-led the effort.