FRANCE’S National Assembly began yesterday to debate a Bill  meant to enshrine a woman’s right to an abortion in the French Constitution, the first key step in a legislative process that also requires a vote in the Senate.

The measure has been promised by President Emmanuel Macron following a rollback of abortion rights in the United States. 

Mr Macron’s government wants Article 34 of France’s constitution amended to include that “the law determines the conditions by which it exercises the freedom of women to have recourse to an abortion, which is guaranteed.”

A constitutional amendment must pass both chambers of parliament and then be approved either in a referendum or by a three-fifths majority of a joint session of parliament. 

President Macron’s government is aiming for the second method, though the measure’s level of support in the Senate is less certain than in the National Assembly.

None of France’s major political parties represented in parliament is questioning the right to abortion, and a majority of deputies in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, are expected to vote in favour of the proposal.

Abortion in France was decriminalised under a 1975 law, but there is nothing in the constitution that would guarantee abortion rights.