French lawmakers have approved legislation aimed at removing any legal basis for the idea that marriage creates an obligation to engage in sexual relations.

The bill, passed on Wednesday by the National Assembly, amends the civil code to state explicitly that a couple’s “community of living” does not amount to an obligation to have sex. It also bars the absence of sexual relations from being cited as grounds for fault-based divorce.

France’s civil code currently defines the duties of marriage as respect, fidelity, support, and assistance, and requires spouses to commit to a “community of living”. While the text does not refer to sexual relations, judges have at times interpreted the phrase broadly.

That interpretation came under scrutiny following a 2019 divorce case in which a woman was found to be at fault for refusing sex with her husband for several years, a ruling that allowed him to obtain a fault-based divorce.

The woman later appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled last year that allowing refusal of sex to justify fault-based divorce violated her rights. The court said France had failed to adequately protect sexual autonomy within marriage, a judgment that has since influenced how French courts approach similar cases.

Lawmakers backing the new bill say it aligns domestic law with that ruling and removes any remaining room for misinterpretation. “Marriage cannot be a space where consent to sex is presumed to be permanent,” said Green MP Marie-Charlotte Garin, who sponsored the legislation.

Public debate around the issue intensified following the 2024 Mazan rape trial, in which Gisèle Pelicot was drugged and repeatedly raped by men invited by her husband. Several defendants told the court they assumed her consent based on assurances from her spouse, this claim that resulted to widespread outrage.

Marital rape has been a criminal offence in France since 1990.

France has also recently strengthened its sexual offences framework. Since November, the legal definition of rape has been expanded to focus explicitly on consent, defining it as any sexual act carried out without consent that is informed, specific, prior and revocable. Silence or lack of resistance does not constitute consent under the law.

The bill will now proceed through the remaining legislative stages and is expected to become law in the coming weeks.