This is a first step towards the inclusion of the right to abortion in the Constitution. The deputies validated in committee, Wednesday, November 9, a proposal for a constitutional law in this direction, to guard against possible challenges like those observed in particular in the United States. “No woman may be deprived of the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy [IVG] » : the short text adopted on Wednesday, carried by the leader of the Renaissance deputies, Aurore Bergé, must now be examined in the hemicycle during the week of November 28.
“Neither symbol nor opportunism”
Previously, another text proposing to include this right in the Fundamental Law, carried by his counterpart of La France insoumise (LFI) Mathilde Panot, must arrive in the hemicycle on November 24, after a passage in the law commission scheduled for 16 november. “Whichever group has proposed this initiative”Mme Bergé is delighted that a majority “seems to emerge in the Assembly” on this topic. “It is neither for symbolism nor for political expediency, it is because it is up to us today to take this decisive step together”pleaded the deputy.
His initiative was announced in June, in the wake of a resounding decision by the highest court in the United States, which had weakened the right to abortion for American women. Defenders of the inclusion of the right to abortion in the Constitution, in the presidential majority as well as on the left, point out that this achievement is also weakened in European countries, citing in particular Poland. Left-wing deputies pleaded, without success, for a right to contraception to also be enshrined in the Constitution, as was proposed in the text tabled by LFI.
“A concern for balance”
Elected representatives from the Republicans (LR) and the National Rally (RN), on the other hand, expressed reluctance regarding the text adopted on Wednesday. “The right to abortion is absolutely not threatened in France”argued MP RN Pascale Bordes, criticizing a formulation that “suggests that access would be unconditional and absolute”. Deputy LR Virginie Duby-Muller asked that the constitutionalization of the right to abortion be accompanied by that “respect for all human beings from the beginning of life, for the sake of balance”an amendment rejected.
The LR group also believes that the text of the deputies “cannot succeed”, after the Senate rejected, on October 19, at first reading a similar bill. However, any proposal for a constitutional law must be voted on in the same terms by the two assemblies, before being submitted to a referendum.