France has chosen to enshrine abortion as a constitutional right, thereby becoming the only country in the world to use its most fundamental principles of national law to guarantee the right to terminate a pregnancy up to 14 weeks.
Lawmakers from both houses of the French Parliament voted 780 to 72 in favour of the monumental change, easily surpassing the three-fifths majority needed to amend the French Constitution.
The amendment declares abortion to be a “guaranteed freedom” underpinned by the French Parliament’s laws. It means, the New York Timesreports, that future governments will not be able to “drastically modify” current laws funding abortion for women who seek it, up to 14 weeks into their pregnancies, according to the French justice minister, Éric Dupond-Moretti.
