France became the first country to enshrine abortion rights into its constitution on Monday.
“We’re sending a message to all women: Your body belongs to you, and no one can decide for you,” French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal told members of parliament and senators at a historic joint session of the French legislature at the Palace of Versailles.
The vote of all 925 French legislators was 780-72 in favor of the amendment.
France legalized abortion up to 12 weeks gestation in 1974 but moved to change its laws following the U.S. Supreme Court‘s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade‘s federal protections for abortion in 2022.
In 2022, France increased the legal limit for abortion from 12 to 14 weeks gestation amid outrage that French women often had to travel abroad to obtain the procedure.
Monday’s vote enshrines abortion as a “guaranteed freedom” overseen by parliamentary law, meaning that future governments cannot “drastically modify” the current laws funding abortions up to the 14-week limit.
The French Constitution has been modified over 20 times since it was adopted in 1958, with the last amendment being passed in 2008.
“France is showing the right to abortion is no longer an option. It’s a condition of our democracy,” one of the amendment’s prime advocates and Green Party senator Melanie Vogel said. “The French Republic will no longer remain democratic without the right to abortion.”
Although France is secular, the country’s deep Catholic tradition still has some cultural sway.
The Bishops’ Conference of France called for a day of “fasting and prayer” on Monday in opposition to the amendment.
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The Vatican also repeated its condemnation of the measure on Monday.
“The Pontifical Academy for Life recalls that in the era of universal human rights, there can be no ‘right’ to take a human life,” a statement from the Vatican reads.