The lower house of the French parliament on Tuesday approved a law allowing single parents and lesbians to use medically assisted reproduction for the first time.

The National Assembly, by 326 votes to 115, approved the comprehensive bioethics law proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron’s government.

LGBT groups had eagerly awaited the measure after calling for reproductive measures since the legalisation of same-sex marriage in France in 2013.

The new law will expand access to fertility treatments, such as assisted reproduction and in vitro fertilisation (IVF), which are currently only available to infertile heterosexual couples.

In France, fertility treatment is now free, including for lesbian couples and single women.

Health Minister Olivier Véran said French authorities are preparing to implement the new law as soon as possible so that the first children can be conceived before the end of the year.

The vote ends a two-year debate in parliament. The conservative majority in the Senate has repeatedly rejected the measure, but the lower house, where Macron’s centre-right party has a majority, has the final say.

French LGBT rights groups lobbied for the measure after France legalised same-sex marriage under then-President François Hollande, following months of massive protests from conservative and Catholic groups.

“Finally,” said Matthieu Gatipon of the Inter-LGBT Association, who welcomed the “long-awaited progress”.

“We are satisfied that this is getting done … but this has been a painful birth,” he said, expressing disappointment that the law had waited so long for a final vote.

Gatipon said the situation was difficult for French women who had to postpone their plans to have a baby by several years, and for other women who had to pay expensive travel costs to countries where such regulations exist, such as Spain and Belgium.

The new law does not apply to France’s ban on surrogacy, in which a woman carries and gives birth to a child on behalf of another woman.