IVG in the Constitution: LFI withdraws its text in favor of that of the government, Macron plans a Congress on March 4

2023-11-21 17:34:26

Mathilde Panot had already said it. LFI deputies announced on Tuesday that they were withdrawing their proposed law on the constitutionalization of voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion), supporting the government bill expected on December 13 in the Council of Ministers.

“Since we finally have a timetable on the constitutionalization of abortion, we have removed the proposed law from the agenda” of the day reserved for rebellious texts on November 30, indicated the president of the LFI group Mathilde Panot, during a press briefing at the Assembly.

Even if the wording chosen by the government to constitutionalize abortion is not that proposed by the Insoumis, “I believe that we need this political signal. I hope that the work has been done so that this formulation can find broad agreement” in Parliament, continued the elected representative from Val-de-Marne.

“It’s faster, more direct”

“If we can get there through the bill, it’s faster, more direct,” she added. “Otherwise, we are ready” to put a bill back on the Assembly’s agenda, said Mathilde Panot.

The bill including voluntary termination of pregnancy in the Constitution must be presented on December 13 to the Council of Ministers. Emmanuel Macron envisages that the Congress meeting, where 3/5th of the elected representatives of Parliament will have to vote to include abortion in the Constitution, will be held on March 4, he indicated in his letter to the participants of the last “meeting of Saint-Denis”, consulted this Tuesday by AFP. “An examination in each assembly could take place in the first quarter of 2024,” writes the head of state.

Emmanuel Macron announced on October 29 on social networks the inclusion in the Constitution in 2024 of the freedom of women to resort to abortion.

A formulation ensuring a “fair balance”

According to a preparatory version of the draft constitutional law, consulted by AFP at the beginning of November, the following wording was retained: “The law determines the conditions in which the freedom of women is exercised, which is guaranteed to them, to have recourse to voluntary termination of pregnancy. » This formulation, we can read in the document, aims to ensure a “fair balance” between the positions of the Assembly and the Senate.

During its previous “parliamentary niche” (reserved day) in November 2022, the LFI group had a text on the constitutionalization of abortion adopted at first reading in the Assembly. The Senate with a right and center majority approved it in February 2023 but modified it. He preferred to include in the fundamental law the “freedom of women” to resort to abortion, rather than their “right”.