France becomes first nation to make abortion a constitutional right

VIDEO: 🇫🇷 The French parliament has voted to anchor the right to abortion in the constitution, making France the first country in the world to offer explicit protection for terminating a pregnancy in its basic law

📹 @anahidyan, Nassim Chakib GOMRI
ASSEMBLEE NAT.#AFPVertical pic.twitter.com/xK0qQrgoE7

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) March 5, 2024

Despite pushback from those holding anti-abortion views, including the Vatican and numerous French Bishops, the vote represents a meaningful shift in France’s legislative landscape.

It also represents the views of the majority of French society, with polls indicating that 85 percent of the country’s population supported the amendment, labelling it a crucial safeguard for women’s safety as well as their reproductive rights.

Although abortion has been legal in the nation since 1975, the amendment marks the first time France has explicitly recognised it within its constitutional framework. In fact, it is the first nation to ever do so.

This move is especially reassuring as reproductive rights have come under attack in the United States in recent years. For this reason, French lawmakers decided it was time to introduce additional measures to protect women’s autonomy.

Addressing parliament before the vote, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal emphasised how women’s autonomy over their bodies is at the constant whim of policymakers’ ever-changing values. ‘We’re sending a message to all women: your body belongs to you and no one can decide for you,’ he declared.

This is the moment France made abortion a constitutional right, inspiring a standing ovation in Parliament.

No other country in the world has granted that level of protection to the right to end pregnancy. pic.twitter.com/8OvvTQRVpl

— DW News (@dwnews) March 4, 2024

As the results of the vote were read aloud, parliamentarians rose in a standing ovation while members of women’s rights groups rejoiced.

Representatives from the Fondation des Femmes rights group reiterated the importance of the amendment in light of global challenges to reproductive rights, expressing both relief and emotion at the outcome.

France’s decision serves as a necessary reaffirmation of women’s autonomy and fundamental rights in the 21st century as worsening polarisation places women’s rights at the centre of political and social debates around the world.