On International Women's Day 2024, France became the first nation to constitutionally guarantee the right to abortion.
France made the change by adding a provision to Article 34 of its Constitution. Parliament approved the amendment in a joint sitting at Versailles on 4 March 2024, and President Emmanuel Macron formally signed it on 8 March, deliberately coinciding with International Women's Day. The text describes abortion as a “guaranteed freedom.”
The amendment followed a multi-stage parliamentary process after the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. France already permitted abortion by statute, but constitutional protection gives the right stronger legal status and makes repeal more difficult. The French measure is often described as the first constitutional guarantee of abortion itself; Yugoslavia's 1974 constitution had protected a broader right to decide whether to have children, which is not the same wording.
A common mix-up is calling the change an unlimited constitutional right. The constitution guarantees freedom to seek an abortion within conditions set by law, so Parliament still regulates how the service is provided.