A French government plan to enshrine the "freedom" to have an abortion in the Constitution was approved by France's Sénat on Wednesday, February 28.
With 267 votes in favor and 50 against, the Sénat voted in favor of constitutionalizing abortion. "Tonight, the Senate has written a new page in the history of women's rights. This vote is historic," reacted French Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti. "We will be the first country in the world to enshrine in the Constitution this freedom for women to [exercise freedom] over their own bodies. This vote, in essence, reiterates to those who don't yet know it that women in our country are free. This vote reiterates the extent to which we are all attached to this freedom," he added.
"The Sénat has taken a decisive step, which I applaud," reacted French President Emmanuel Macron, who also stated that he would convene a joint session of the French Parliament on March 4 for the final vote. "I pledged to make women's freedom to have recourse to abortion irreversible by enshrining it in the Constitution. After the Assemblée Nationale, the Sénat has taken a decisive step, which I applaud," reacted Emmanuel Macron, on X following the Senate's adoption of the bill.
"We're writing history," wrote La France Insoumise (LFI, radical left) parliamentary group leader Mathilde Panot "The last lock has been broken. France will become the first state in the world to guarantee the right to abortion. We're writing history," wrote LFI MP Panot on X.
"It's no longer a battle, now it's a victory, it's an extraordinary message that France has just sent," said Senator Mélanie Vogel. "To the French women and men who massively called for the constitutionalization of abortion, to all the women who have lived through the horror of the criminalization of abortion, to all the women who never want to experience it," she said, adding: "It's also a magnificent message that we're sending to all the women of the world."