The Senate does not adopt the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy and contraception

Presented by Mélanie Vogel, senator representing the French living outside France and member of the environmental group, the bill was tabled on September 2. Its project was to enshrine in the Constitution the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) and to contraception and to guarantee effective and free access to them. But with 139 votes for and 172 against, it was not retained.

Avoid a dispute

For Mélanie Vogel, it was important to include this provision in the country’s Constitution, following what happened in the United States but also in certain European countries.

Indeed, in the land of Uncle Sam, there is a “questioning of the right to abortion with the annulment of the Roe v. Wade from 1973“. In Europe too, “the progress of legislation aimed at restricting the right to abortion and contraception illustrates the fragility of these rights“She advances as an argument.

For Melanie Vogel, “the rights to abortion and contraception cannot be infringed” and it’s “the law which guarantees free and effective access to these rights“.

Refusal by the Senate

The Senate Law Commission also examined the proposal on October 12, 2022. And it found that the inclusion of a constitutional right to abortion and contraception “was not justified by the situation encountered in France”. Parliamentarians will have a second chance, in the National Assembly, where two similar constitutional bills will soon be studied.