The French Senate adopted the constitutional bill to include the right to abortion in the French constitution on Wednesday. The Bill was passed with 267 senators voting in favour of the Bill and 50 against.

The bill sought to enshrine the freedom to resort to voluntary termination of pregnancy into Article 34 of the French constitution. Article 34 of the French constitution provides the Parliament’s duty to determine rules in various areas including civil rights, criminal justice systems and electoral laws. After the bill comes into effect, Article 34 will confer on the Parliament a duty to establish the conditions under which the freedom to resort to voluntary termination of pregnancy is exercised. Local media also reported that the two amendments, deleting the word “guarantee” from the bill and introducing a conscience clause to allow health professionals refusing to perform an abortion, were rejected by more than 100 votes in the Senate. 

The bill was previously passed by the French National Assembly in January. The Senate adopted the bill in identical terms. Pursuant to Article 89 of the constitution, the amendment will come into effect after the Parliament convened in Congress approves with a three-fifths majority of the votes cast. French President Emmanuel Macron will convene Parliament in Congress on March 4.

In proposing the bill, the government stated its wish to protect the freedom of abortion after the landmark decision of Roe v. Wade and its subsequent reversal by the US Supreme Court. The president of La France Insoumise, a French left-wing party, Mathilde Panot, stated that France would become the first state in the world to guarantee the right to abortion after the Senate adopted the bill.