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President Emmanuel Macron described the move as “French pride” that had sent a “universal message”, with a special public ceremony planned to celebrate the move on International Women’s Day on 8 March.
A message pertaining to abortion and the constitution is projected onto the Eiffel Tower. Source: AFP / Dimitar Dilkoff
The Eiffel Tower was lit up in celebration after the change was passed with the slogan “My Body My Choice”.
Such joint parliamentary sessions are extremely rare in France and called only for momentous occasions such as constitutional changes, the last of which was made in 2008.
Why France made the move to make abortion a constitutional right
A November 2022 survey by French polling group IFOP found that 86 per cent of French people supported inscribing it in the constitution.
Celebration and protests
The influential speaker of the Senate, Gerard Larcher, made clear that while he backed the right to abortion he was not in favour of inscribing it into the constitution, saying the right was not under threat in France.
Catholic bishops called for a day of “fasting and prayer” so the French could “rediscover the taste for life”.
But hundreds of jubilant backers of the move also took to the Place du Trocadero in central Paris on Monday to witness the passing of the law on large video screen deployed for the event.
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