The moment that electrified France – and could push forward abortion rights around the world | Agnès Poirier

Some had grumbled it was mere politicking from Macron, yet enshrining the right to abortion felt like a rare moment of unity

There was little doubt that the French parliament would reach a majority on Monday, when it gathered in a special session to enshrine the right to abortion into its constitution. But even so, it was an electric moment. At the Palace of Versailles, big enough to host the 925 MPs and senators eligible to vote, the scene was set to the solemn drumming of the republican guard.

Broadcast live on every news channel and beamed on to a giant screen at the Paris Trocadero, opposite the Eiffel Tower, French citizens watched as the national assembly's first female president, Yael Braun-Pivet, looking calm and focused, walked towards the packed chamber to declare the hearing open. Passing republican guards in full regalia, sabres drawn, forming a guard of honour, there was total silence as she made her entrance to make history, as France became the world's first country to guarantee women's rights to abortion.

Agnes Poirier is a political commentator, writer and critic

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