France on Monday enshrined the right to abortion in its constitution, a world first welcomed by women's rights groups as historic and harshly criticised by anti-abortion groups.
MPs and senators overwhelmingly backed the move, by 780 votes against 72, in a special joint vote of the two houses of parliament, under the gilded ceilings of Versailles Palace, just outside Paris.
Abortion rights activists gathered in central Paris cheered and applauded as the Eiffel Tower scintillated in the background and displayed the message "MyBodyMyChoice" as the result of the vote was announced on a giant screen.
Monday's vote enshrined in Article 34 of the French constitution that "the law determines the conditions in which a woman has the guaranteed freedom to have recourse to an abortion".
"France is at the forefront," said the head of the lower house of parliament, Yael Braun-Pivet, from French President Emmanuel Macron's centrist party.
