By Elizabeth Pineau

France's Senate voted on Wednesday in favour of a bill that would allow single women and lesbian couples access to in-vitro fertilization (IVF), the first major social reform of President Emmanuel Macron's term. The bill was passed 160-116 in the Senate, where Macron's centrist party is outnumbered by right-wing Republicans.

The bill is part of a broader bioethics law, which in October cleared its first reading in the National Assembly, the lower house where Macron's party commands a majority. The law would unwind some of western Europe's strictest rules governing medically assisted pregnancies, a campaign promise of Macron.

The senators, however, voted down an article approved by the lower house, that would have allowed IVF to be reimbursed by French social security. Under existing law in France, IVF is available only to opposite-sex couples, and only for reasons of infertility or the risk of transmission of a disease or medical condition to the child or either parent. Read more via Reuters