A “historic” vote beyond the “divisions”, underlined the presidential camp and the left. The Senate voted this Wednesday, February 28, to include the voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) in the Constitution.
Despite the reluctance of certain senators from the right and the center, the majority in the upper house, the hemicycle voted 267 votes against 50 in favor of “guaranteed freedom” for voluntary termination of pregnancy, without modifying the government text.
In the wake of the senators’ vote, Emmanuel Macron announced, on the social network, that Parliament was going to meet in Congress on Monday in Versailles to definitively adopt the text. The bill had already been adopted in the same terms in January in the National Assembly. The path chosen for a constitutional revision required that both chambers adopt the same text, before it was submitted to a vote in Congress bringing together all parliamentarians, and requiring three-fifths of the votes.
“The Senate has written a new page in women’s rights,” said Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti, who assures that France would be “the first country in the world” to protect abortion in its fundamental text. “It’s a huge feminist victory,” responded environmentalist senator Mélanie Vogel, welcoming “a major step forward” and “a message sent to feminists around the world.” Many left-wing senators described in the chamber their “emotion” at a “strong” and “exhilarating” moment. “We are writing History”, added the leader of the LFI deputies on X, Mathilde Panot.
Debates on the wording of the text
Two camps opposed each other at the Luxembourg Palace. On the one hand, the government supported by the left in favor of this revision promised by the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron. On the other, part of the right and centrists still skeptical of the wording adopted by the executive of “guaranteed freedom”. Senators LR Bruno Retailleau and Philippe Bas had tabled an amendment aimed at removing this expression, which was finally rejected in the hemicycle.
“Useless laws weaken necessary laws,” regretted Senator LR Muriel Jourda, calling on Parliament to “not react under the influence of emotion”. His colleague Philippe Bas criticized the “strange concept of guaranteed freedom”. “A guarantee is an obligation. Our fear is that creative jurisprudence could create an enforceable right,” continued LR leader Bruno Retailleau.
Eric Dupond-Moretti called on the right to “not give in to a form of legalism which would distract us from the main thing”, refuting any creation of an “absolute, limitless right”. The amendment to delete the word “guarantee” was ultimately rejected by more than 100 votes, as was another proposal aimed at including in the Constitution the conscience clause of health professionals authorized to refuse to perform an abortion. By all accounts in the Senate, the constant mobilization of associations and parliamentarians committed to reform, as well as the pressure sometimes exerted by family circles, have pushed certain elected officials into the “for” camp.