France passes constitutional amendment guaranteeing access to abortion

French lawmakers on [4 March] voted to anchor the right to abortion in the country's constitution, in a global first that has garnered overwhelming public support. A congress of both houses of parliament in Versailles [...] found the three-fifths majority needed for the change after it overcame initial resistance in the right-leaning Senate. After congress approved the move, France became the only country in the world to clearly protect the right to terminate a pregnancy in its basic law. President Emmanuel Macron pledged last year to enshrine abortion -- legal in France since 1975 -- in the constitution after the US Supreme Court in 2022 overturned the half-century-old right to the procedure, allowing states to ban or curtail it. France's lower-house National Assembly in January overwhelmingly approved making abortion a "guaranteed freedom" in the constitution, followed by the Senate [...]. The bill was expected to clear the final hurdle of a combined vote of both chambers when they gather for a rare joint session at the former royal residence of the Palace of Versailles. Few expected any difficulty finding the needed supermajority after the three-fifths mark was largely exceeded in both previous ballots. [...] Leah Hoctor, of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said France could offer "the first explicit broad constitutional provision of its kind, not just in Europe, but also globally". Chile included the right to elective abortion in a draft for a new progressive constitution in 2022, but voters rejected the text in a referendum. Some countries allude to the right. Cuba's constitution guarantees women's "reproductive and sexual rights". And several Balkan states have inherited versions of former Yugoslavia's 1974 constitution that said it was a human right to "decide on the birth of children". Other states explicitly mention abortion in their constitution, but only allow it in specific circumstances, Hoctor said. In Kenya, for example, the constitution says "abortion is not permitted unless, in the opinion of a trained health professional, there is need for emergency treatment, or the life or health of the mother is in danger, or if permitted by any other written law". [...] Most members of the French public support the move to give the right extra protection. A November 2022 survey by French polling group IFOP found that 86 percent of French people supported inscribing it in the constitution. Left-wing and centrist politicians have welcomed the change, while right-wing senators in private have said they felt under pressure to give it a green light.
Read the full article here: France 24