France votes to enshrine abortion access in Constitution in response to US Supreme Court

The French Parliament on Monday overwhelmingly voted in favor of enshrining a woman's right to obtain an abortion in the French Constitution in an amendment that comes in response to the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overrule Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 abortion case.

More than 86% of lawmakers in both the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament voted in favor of the amendment, per a breakdown of the vote from France's National Assembly. Only three-fifths of lawmakers were required to support the proposal for it to become enshrined in the constitution.

The amendment, which was expected to pass, states: "The law determines the conditions under which the freedom guaranteed to a woman to have recourse to a voluntary termination of pregnancy is exercised."

Any woman in France can already obtain an abortion up to the 14th week of pregnancy or 16 weeks after the first day of her last period.

French lawmakers said that the amendment was in response to the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overruled Roe v. Wade and determined that abortion access is not a constitutionally-protected right. 

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