The Senate of France, the main obstacle in the race to make the access to abortion a constitutional right, voted on 28 February with a large majority in favour of a text that closes a long debate.

With 267 ‘yes’ and 50 ‘no’, the higher chamber put and end to the resistance of the last months as it finally accepted the wording of a new constitutional article that will read: “The law determines the conditions by which is exercised the freedom of women to have recourse to an abortion, which is guaranteed”.

It was France’s president Emmanuel Macron who pushed this move, in reaction to a decision of the United States Supreme Court. In March 2023, Macron said France would “make women’s right to abortion irreversible in 2024”, urging parliamentarians to reach an agreement “as soon as possible”.

Now, in what the prime minister of the government, Gabriel Attal, said was a “huge progress” and a “protection that we owe to all women”, a joint session of the National Assembly and the Senate will seal on 4 March the constitutional reform to make the voluntary end of pregnancy a fundamental right.

What is not clear yet is if the majority will be able to avoid the usual referendum needed to certify the population’s approval of constitutional changes.

‘Inspiration’ for other countries

Two years ago, France extended the legal term for abortions from 12 to 14 weeks and no major political party has said it plans to reverse the law of 1975. This is why analysts say becoming the world’s first country to include the right to abortion in its constitution is a “symbolic” step to portray France as a country championing the rights of women.

Some pro-IVG activists (the French abbreviation of “voluntary termination of pregnancy”) said the decision in Paris will now “inspire” other countries in Europe to include the “freedom of women” to abort. Other groups celebrated a “collective victory of feminist organisations and a strong signal sent to women around the world”.

The European Parliament already passed a motion in July 2022 stating that abortion should be a "fundamental right" across the EU. The text was non-binding and does not have implications for national laws.

Pro-life opposition

In 2019, France recorded the highest number of abortions, with 232,000 terminations.

The pro-life movement is strong among French Catholic circles, which is visible in the Marches por la vie.

Smaller evangelical organisations such as the Protestant Committee of Human Dignity (CPDH in French) told Evangelical Focus recently that “abortion has become a dogma for the parliamentary majority”. This, said CPDH’s president Frank Meyer, would “explain the refusal to listen to the suffering of women who have had abortions, and the desire to trivialise and constitutionalise this procedure”.