This is a historic reform.
With 276 votes for and 50 votes against, the Senate voted favorably to include the right to abortion in the French Constitution.
More precisely, the senators approved the constitutionalization of the “guaranteed freedom” of women “to have recourse to a voluntary termination of pregnancy”.
The government's text was therefore adopted without modifications, despite the reluctance of certain senators from the right and the center, despite having a majority in the upper house.
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“A decisive step”
Abortion rights activists were hanging on to this decision, a delicate but essential step before Parliament meets in Congress.
The latter will also meet in Versailles, Monday March 4, to officially include abortion in the Constitution.
This is what Emmanuel Macron announced in a publication on X, in the minutes following the vote.
“After the National Assembly, the Senate is taking a decisive step which I welcome,” he added.
The Senate's vote guarantees the final adoption of this historic reform.
“We are writing History,” greeted Mathilde Panot, LFI senator, to AFP.
For his part, the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, wanted to “thank all those who worked to bring this text to fruition”.
A little earlier in the day, from the Luxembourg Palace, he called on the senators to “live up to popular expectations”.
A call that they seem to have heard.