A step that does not mean the end of the debates. The Senate, with a right-wing majority, rejected this Wednesday at first reading a cross-partisan bill aimed at enshrining the right to abortion in the Constitution.
The text, co-signed by senators from seven of the eight political groups in the Senate, with the exception of the first of them, Les Républicains, was debated within the framework of a space reserved (a “parliamentary niche”) for the environmental group . His rejection was won by 139 votes for and 172 votes against, after sometimes lively exchanges which turned into a right-left confrontation.
“The senatorial majority has chosen to register against the will of 81% of French men and women,” reacted the author of the bill, Mélanie Vogel, for whom “this battle is not over. It is just beginning”.
“The power of the symbol”
Two similar constitutional bills are in the pipeline in the Assembly, on the initiative of Nupes and the Renaissance group. At the Palais-Bourbon, the macronists want to carry their text on November 9 in the Law Commission, and the week of November 28 in the Hemicycle.
Including the right to abortion in the Constitution “would have the force of the symbol”, declared the Keeper of the Seals, Eric Dupond-Moretti. He assured that “the government will respond to support each of the many parliamentary initiatives in this area”.
A proposed constitutional law, when it is voted on in the same terms by both chambers, must still be submitted to a referendum in order to be adopted definitively. A bill may be submitted to it for approval in Congress.