PARIS, France: France’s lower house of parliament Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a measure to inscribe abortion as a “guaranteed freedom” in the constitution, a pledge made by President Emmanuel Macron in 2023.
But the controversial plan now heads to the upper chamber of the Senate, where it faces opposition from conservative Republicans and the far-right National Rally.
The measure passed the National Assembly by a vote of 493 to 30, with almost all members of Macron’s centrist minority coalition and left-wing opposition parties approving it.
“Tonight, the Assembly didn’t miss its rendezvous with the history of women and with history in general,” said Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti.
Macron and other French lawmakers have called for the right to abortion – which has been legal in France since 1974 – to be enshrined in the constitution after the US Supreme Court in 2022 ended the nation’s nearly half-century-old constitutional right to abortion.
Changes to the French constitution require either a referendum or the approval of a three-fifths combined vote of both houses of parliament.
The government chose the term “guaranteed freedom” to thread the needle between the lower house, which previously voted to enshrine the “right” to abortion, and the Senate, dominated by center-right parties, which has so far approved only “freedom” for abortion.
Many centre-right members of the Senate are opposed to abortion being mentioned in the constitution at all, saying that it is not a constitutional matter and that access to abortion in France is not at risk.
The Senate will start discussing the text on February 28.
