can the right to abortion enter into the Constitution?

On Thursday 24 and Monday 28 November, the deputies are called upon to debate two constitutional bills in favor of the inclusion of the protection of the right to abortion in the Constitution.

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States buried the emblematic decision Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed the right of American women to have an abortion. A judgment which had nevertheless marked history in 1973. A judgment which for almost half a century had guaranteed the right of American women to have an abortion. But a judgment which had in fact never been accepted by the religious right, recalls BBC News. When in June 2022, the United States Supreme Court did an about-face, it opened the door to numerous restrictions, with each state then becoming free to ban abortions or not. A decision which had aroused strong reactions across the Atlantic, but not only. In France, several political groups had immediately expressed their desire to include the right to IGV in the Constitution.

Five months later, the deputies must consider, Thursday, November 24, the bill of the group La France insoumise. Its objective is to enshrine the right to abortion and contraception in the French Constitution. Two days before their parliamentary niche (the day on which a minority parliamentary group in the Assembly has the right to set the agenda – and thereby put on the table the subjects that are close to their hearts), during which the bill will be addressed, the rebels have clearly shown their desire to fight it out.

During a “happening” on the steps of the Bourbon Palace on Tuesday, the LFI deputies displayed themselves brandishing metal hangers, a symbol of clandestine abortions. More than their bill, they asked the government for a bill, while the Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, had, last June, supported the proposal of the deputies aiming to register theAbortion in the Constitution. “We want to say again during this event which comes in two days with our parliamentary niche that we do not want a constitutional law proposal, but a constitutional bill”, entrusted to the Huffington Post the president of the LFI group in the Assembly, Mathilde Panot.

And for good reason, a constitutional bill, which would emanate not from deputies unlike a proposal, but from the government, would make it possible to speed things up since when it comes to modifying the Constitution, parliamentarians must submit to a referendum while the government only needs “two thirds of parliamentarians [réunis en] congress”, specified the deputy of Val-de-Marne.

Difficult to speak of a long calm river. When it comes to modifying the Constitution, a constitutional bill must first be approved in the same terms in the National Assembly, but also in the Senate. Outside the upper house of parliament is currently resolutely on the right, or rather against it. Proof of this is, on October 19, the Senate has already challenged the text carried by the environmentalist senator Mélanie Vogel which aimed to… constitutionalize abortion.

Beyond this stage, which therefore promises to be already compromised, as MP Mathilde Panot reminded the Huffington Post, if one of the texts passed the first stage, it would still have to be approved by referendum. But a referendum is often considered risky for a President of the Republic. But in this case, it would be up to the Head of State to summon him. And as pointed out ReleaseEmmanuel Macron could then quite throw it into oblivion.

In fact, it is not one but two proposals for constitutional laws which aim to include the protection of the right to abortion in the Constitution which will be put on the table in the Assembly: that of the Insoumis, but also that of Renaissance (ex-LREM). Thursday’s text therefore comes from the Insoumis and wishes in particular to add a new article to Title VIII, saying that “no one may infringe the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy and to contraception. The law guarantees to anyone who does demand free and effective access to these rights”, reports Release. The second, carried by the leader of the deputies of the majority, Aurore Bergé, and which will be discussed in the Assembly on Monday, November 28, aims to inscribe with a hot iron that “no woman can be deprived of the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy”, disregarding contraception.

Asked by Release on the subject, Diane Roman, professor of public law at the Sorbonne law school, explains that if abortion were enshrined in the Constitution, “the legislator could no longer take regressive measures that would undermine [à ce] right”. For his part, still in the columns of Liberation, the obstetrician-gynecologist Philippe Faucher believes that “on a symbolic level”, this would consecrate “abortion as a right”.

If LFI and the majority seem, for once, on the same wavelength, Les Républicains and the National Rally are much more cautious on this subject. For Marine Le Pen, who spoke on Tuesday November 22 on the subject in a press release, “at a time when the French are affected by multiple crises […]it seems quite offbeat to open a debate which, if it exists in the United States, does not exist in France, no political force considering questioning access to abortion. For his part, the boss of the LRs in the Assembly, Olivier Marleix, affirmed at the beginning of November that The Republicans considered “that this debate, we could have spared it. In these two camps, the instruction was to precisely not to impose voting instructions, recalls Release.