France, March 9 -- Commentators have hailed France's decision to protect abortion rights within its constitution as a legal milestone. But healthcare workers are warning that having the right to an abortion and having access to one remain two different things.

"Enshrining this right in the constitution makes it practically untouchable," declared long-time women's rights activist and former leftwing MPDanielle Bousquet, speaking to RFIon the day that both houses of the French parliamentapproved the move.

Article 34 of the charter now states: "The law determines the conditions by which the freedom of women to have recourse to an abortion, which is guaranteed, is exercised."

First legalised in France in 1975, abortion was previously autho...