IVG in the Constitution: the majority has “no doubts” about the result of a “historic” vote in Congress

2024-03-04 10:58:53

The government is confident about the outcome of the election. After passing through the National Assembly and then the Senate, Parliament meets this Monday in Congress in Versailles for a historic day: France is preparing to become the first country in the world to explicitly include in its Constitution the voluntary interruption of pregnancy (abortion).

“The vast majority of senators and deputies voted for the adoption of this text so I have little doubt about the result in Congress,” declared on France 2 this Monday morning the President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet. “We had a very large vote in the assembly and in the Senate… A priori, we are there. And we are largely there,” also confidently launched on TF 1, the minister responsible for equality between women and men Aurore Bergé.

To pass, revisions to the Constitution must be approved “by a 3/5th majority of the votes cast in both houses of Parliament assembled in Congress.” However, these proportions have already been largely exceeded during the first votes with: 493 deputies against 30 in the Assembly and 267 votes against 50 in the Senate.

“We must not wait until it is too late to act”

Even if the outcome of the vote is awaited, “that does not mean that it is not an extremely important moment. There is no suspense but the moment is crucial”, underlined Yaël Braun-Pivet, “we are going to include a new fundamental right in our constitution, we will be the first in the world to do so. » Aurore Bergé also expressed her “immense emotion”. “We have often overused the term historical but here I believe it is appropriate,” she underlined.

Opponents of this revision of the Constitution point out that it is not necessary, the right to abortion is not currently in danger in France. But, after the regressions of several countries on this subject, notably the United States, Aurore Bergé emphasizes that “unfortunately there are always threats. We must not wait until it is too late to act.”