View of the hemicycle at the National Assembly in Paris, France, January 20, 2026French lawmakers on Wednesday unanimously approved a bill seeking to end "marital duty", after criticism from women's rights groups about its use to ignore sexual consent in marriage and marital rape. The text — backed by more than 120 MPs in the lower house National Assembly — clarifies in the civil code that cohabitation does not create any obligation for spouses to have sexual relations. The French civil code lists four duties attached to marriage — fidelity, support, assistance and cohabitation — but it does not mention sexual obligation. Read moreThe age of female rageHowever, older court rulings sometimes interpreted cohabitation as implying a "shared bed", allowing the idea of a "marital duty" to persist in practice. In 2019, a man obtained a divorce in France on the grounds that his wife had stopped having sex with him.