Abortion is now a constitutional right in France – National

France on Monday enshrined the right to abortion in its constitution, a world-first hailed by women’s rights groups as historic and harshly criticized by anti-abortion groups.

MPs and senators overwhelmingly backed the move, by 780 votes to 72, in a special joint vote of the two houses of parliament, under the gilded ceiling of Versailles Palace, just outside Paris.

Abortion rights activists gathered in central Paris cheered and applauded as the Eiffel Tower glowed in the background and displayed the message “MyBodyMyChoice” as the result of the vote was announced on a giant screen.

Abortion rights are more widely accepted in France than in the United States and many other countries, where polls show around 80 percent of French people support the fact that abortion is legal.

“We are sending a message to all women: your body belongs to you and no one can decide for you,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal told lawmakers before the vote.

Women have had legal abortion rights in France since a 1974 law, which was heavily criticized at the time.

But the US Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn the Roe v. Wade recognizing women’s constitutional right to abortion prompted activists to push France to become the first country to explicitly protect the right in its constitution.

“This right (to abortion) has retreated in the United States. And so no one has allowed us to think that France is exempt from this risk,” said Laura Slimani, from the Fondation des Femmes rights group.

“There are a lot of emotions, as a feminist activist, as well as as a woman,” she added.

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Monday’s vote states in Article 34 of the French constitution that “the law establishes the conditions under which a woman has the guaranteed freedom to seek assistance in an abortion.”

“France is leading,” said Yael Braun-Pivet, the head of the lower house of parliament from French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party.

But the move is not exempt from criticism.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said Macron was using it to score political points, given the huge support for abortion rights in the country.

“We voted to include it in the Constitution because we have no problem with that,” Le Pen told reporters before the Versailles vote, while adding that it would be an exaggeration to call it a historic step because, she said, “no one has endangering the right to abortion in France.”

Pascale Moriniere, the president of the Association of Catholic Families, called the move a defeat for anti-abortion campaigners.

“It’s (also) a defeat for women,” he said, “and, of course, for all the children who don’t see the sun.”

Moriniere said there was no need to add the right to abortion to the constitution.

“We imported a debate that was not French, because the United States was the first to remove that with the Roe v. Wade repeal law,” he said. “There was a panic effect from the feminist movement, who wanted to carve it into the marble of the constitution.”