Watch again: President Macron holds special Congress as France makes historical abortion vote

Watch again as French President Emmanuel Macron convened a special congress of National Assembly representatives as lawmakers gathered for a historic vote that will make abortion a constitutional right.

French lawmakers met on Monday (4 March ) to hold a final vote on inscribing abortion into the constitution.

President Macron convened the special congress in Versailles, after both houses of the parliament approved to enshrine the "guaranteed freedom" to abortion into its constitution.

If the proposition garners a three-fifths majority in the special congress, France will become the world's first nation to constitutionalise abortion.

Women have had a legal right to abortion in France since a law was adopted in 1974. That law has been updated several times since, with the latest modification in February 2022 extending access to abortion to 14 weeks of pregnancy from 12.