Macron plays Chirac. By announcing, this Sunday, October 29, a reform aimed at integrating the right to abortion into the Constitution, the current President of the Republic draws inspiration from his predecessor from Corrèze. In February 2007, a few months before leaving power, the head of state had article 66-1 introduced into the supreme text, providing that “no one may be sentenced to the death penalty”. Yesterday as today, it is a question of granting additional protection to these principles which give meaning to our humanity, respect for life in all circumstances and the right not to give birth against one’s will. We must salute the protection of these values that other peoples often envy us. If by chance a repressive power decides to suppress these rights, it would have to revise the Constitution in turn, with a particularly qualified majority. A challenge.
That being said, the reform is more a political symbol than pure societal progress. The right to abortion, although it may be the subject of resistance from ultra doctors here or there, is consensually recognized. To some extent, we would add that it is because the fight has already been won that the project will succeed. For fifteen years, no constitutional revision has prospered, as the procedure is so discouraging. As if we had ended up understanding Montesquieu wrongly. He wrote that “laws should only be touched with a trembling hand.” But he added that “it is sometimes necessary to change certain laws.” Not simply to lock an acquired right.