President Macron seals historic amendment, guarantees abortion as constitutional right in France

With the official inclusion of the right to abortion in its constitution, France has become the first nation in the world to do so. President Emmanuel Macron has pledged that he “will not rest” until women in Europe are afforded the same protections, according to Al Jazeera.

The constitutional amendment that the French Parliament had approved earlier in the week was sealed on Friday by Macron.

While attending the event, which took place on International Women’s Day, Macron declared that he would work to have the right to an abortion included in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

“Today is not the end of the story but the start of a fight,” he said, standing in front of the Ministry of Justice.

“We’re going to lead this fight in our continent, in our Europe, where reactionary forces are attacking women’s rights,” he added.

Although abortion has been legal in France since 1975, Macron promised last year to strengthen protections for the operation after the US Supreme Court struck down the 50-year-old right to procedure in 2022, leaving state-level decisions intact, as per Al Jazeera.

Women celebrated on Monday after a historic vote in both houses of the French Parliament approved the inclusion of abortion as a “guaranteed freedom” under Article 34 of the constitution.

According to CNN, while abortion is a highly divisive issue in US politics that often falls along party lines, in France it is widely supported. Many of the lawmakers who voted against the amendment did so not because they opposed abortion, but because they felt the measure was unnecessary, given the wide support for reproductive rights.