Photo: Stéphane de Sakutin Agence France-Presse The inclusion of abortion in the French Constitution has passed its most delicate stage in Parliament with the favorable vote of the Senate.
France Media Agency in Paris
2:40 p.m.
- Europe
The inclusion of abortion (voluntary termination of pregnancy) in the French Constitution passed its most delicate stage in Parliament on Wednesday with the favorable vote of the Senate, removing the last doubts surrounding the final adoption of this historic reform during a Congress which will meet in Versailles on Monday.
Despite the reluctance of certain senators from the right and the center, the majority in the upper house, the hemicycle voted 267 votes to 50 in favor of “guaranteed freedom” in the voluntary termination of pregnancy, without modifying the French government text.
Parliament will meet in Congress on Monday in Versailles (south of Paris) to include abortion in the Constitution, President Emmanuel Macron immediately announced on X.
“After the National Assembly, the Senate is taking a decisive step which I welcome. For the final vote, I will convene Parliament in Congress on March 4,” he wrote.
The French Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti spoke, opening the debates in the Senate, of “a historic day” to make France “the first country in the world to protect in its Constitution the freedom of women to dispose of their bodies “.
President Emmanuel Macron made a commitment, on March 8, 2023, to include abortion in the fundamental law, responding to concerns arising from the cancellation of the ruling guaranteeing the United States the right to abortion throughout the territory.
After adoption at the end of January in the Assembly with an overwhelming majority, the debates on Wednesday in the Senate were more tense.