French move to make abortion a ‘guaranteed freedom’ gains big win in lower house
The measure passed the national assembly late on Tuesday by a vote of 493 to 30, with almost all members of Macron’s centrist minority coalition as well as leftwing opposition parties approving.
Macron and other French lawmakers called for the right to an abortion – which has been legal in France since 1974 – to be inscribed in the constitution after the US supreme court in 2022 ended an almost half-century national constitutional right to abortion.
The government chose the term “guaranteed freedom” to thread a needle between the lower house, which earlier voted to enshrine the “right” to an abortion, and the Senate, which is dominated by centre-right parties and which so far has approved only “freedom” for abortion.
The Senate will start examining the text on 28 February.
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