France Decides That Sex With Child Under 15 Is Automatically Rape

Members of Parliament attend a session of questions to the Government at the French National Assembly in Paris, on Feb. 9, 2021. Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images

PARIS—The French parliament on Thursday adopted legislation that characterizes sex with a child under the age of 15 as rape and punishable by up to 20 years in jail, bringing its penal code closer in line with many other Western nations.

Sex between an adult and a child younger than 15 was already illegal but could only be prosecuted as rape if there was proof the minor was coerced through violence, constraint, or surprise. Without proof of coercion, it was prosecuted as the lesser offense of a “sexual act on a minor.”