2023-10-30 06:30:00
Emmanuel Macron, after his speech for the 65th anniversary of the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, to the Constitutional Council, in Paris, October 4, 2023. CYRIL BITTON / DIVERGENCE POUR “LE MONDE”
The art of the opposite. While the conflict in the Middle East has been altering the political debate in France for three weeks, Emmanuel Macron took a step, Sunday October 29, towards the inclusion of voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) in the Constitution. “The draft constitutional law will be sent to the Council of State this week and presented to the Council of Ministers by the end of the year”, announced the Head of State on the social network X (formerly Twitter). This will involve adding, to article 34 of the Constitution, that “the law determines the conditions under which a woman’s freedom is exercised, which is guaranteed to her, to have recourse to a voluntary termination of pregnancy”.
Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Inclusion of abortion in the Constitution: Emmanuel Macron’s announcement welcomed, but its terms are worrying
The President of the Republic committed, on March 8, during the national tribute to Gisèle Halimi, to “change our Constitution, in order to enshrine the freedom of women to resort to voluntary termination of pregnancy to solemnly assure that nothing can hinder or undo what will thus be irreversible”.
“In 2024, the freedom of women to have an abortion will be irreversible”, he promises Sunday October 29. At the end of“a period of intense crisis in recent days”underlines the Elysée, marked by the assassination of Professor Dominique Bernard, in Arras, on October 13, and by the war in the Middle East, and before flying to Central Asia, the head of state puts on the table a subject likely, he hopes, to recreate a form of unity in the political world. “He wants to find some air, loosen the grip”estimates the leader of the Macronist senators, François Patriat.
“A summary version”
With this revision of the Constitution, which he hopes to see completed in the first quarter of 2024, Emmanuel Macron is moving forward into territory already largely marked out by parliamentarians. In November 2022, deputies voted by an overwhelming majority for a bill in favor of the constitutionalization of the “right to voluntary termination of pregnancy”in reaction to the decision of the US Supreme Court, in June 2022, to revoke federal protection of the right to abortion.
In February, the Senate in turn approved the principle of constitutionalizing abortion, but by registering the “women’s freedom” to resort to abortion, rather than ” right “. Despite this alteration made by Senator Philippe Bas, former collaborator of Simone Veil, to save the text at the last minute, it was only adopted by a narrow majority (166 votes for, 152 against), a large part of the senators The Republicans (LR) still opposing it. “The vote in the Senate showed that a path was possible to adopt a constitutional revision”, however, underlines the Elysée. We saw that the “two Chambers converged towards something which made it possible to revise the Constitution”.
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