The senators voted Wednesday, February 1 in favor of the inclusion in the Constitution of the “freedom of women” to resort to voluntary termination of pregnancy. The proposed constitutional law on abortion, presented to the National Assembly at first reading, can therefore continue its parliamentary course.
If the senators had said no, that was the end of the attempt to constitutionalize the voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) launched in the National Assembly. Last November, a draft constitutional law from France Insoumise was voted on at first reading by the deputies with the support of the majority. It was examined on February 1 in the Senate within the framework of a parliamentary niche of the socialist group and therefore voted by 166 votes against 152.
A tight score which shows that there is a real debate within the Upper House. Moreover, last October, the Senate had rejected another bill on this subject brought by the ecologist Mélanie Vogel. This time it passes. The text can continue on its way.
“Freedom” rather than “right”
But the senators modified the text of the deputies. The issue lies in the details of the rewrite, because there is no longer the mention of the ” right of women, but that of the freedom of women to terminate pregnancy in the text adopted by the senators. A nuance introduced by an amendment by the Republican Philippe Bas, which was not enough to reassure and convince the members of his group, for whom the inclusion of abortion in the Constitution is not necessary, because there is no no threat to its existence in France. Bruno Retailleau, the leader of the LR senators, judged that “the Constitution is not made to send symbolic messages to the whole world “. The Republican senators therefore voted largely against this text.
The left, on the other hand, expressed its satisfaction. The left-wing senators decided to vote for Philippe Bas’s amendment even if it did not correspond to their initial wish to allow the text to continue the parliamentary shuttle, which is in itself a step forward from their point of view. Moreover Mathilde Panot, the leader of the LFI group in the National Assembly, greeted this vote with enthusiasm by qualifying it as« historical “. And the president of family planning, Sarah Durocher, saw it as a “ very strong signal “.
The text still has a long way to go, because it is a particular procedure that aims to modify the Constitution. In the case of an ordinary law, the Assembly has the last word vis-à-vis the Senate. But in that of a proposal for a constitutional law, the text must be voted on in the same terms in the Assembly and in the Senate. The senators have modified the wording of the bill, so we have to see if the deputies will adopt it as it stands at second reading. Nothing is decided yet. Especially since if the two chambers end up agreeing, a referendum will have to be held for the proposal to be adopted.
The other route is for the government to present a bill and in this case, there is no need for a referendum.
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The American reversal, a warning
It is a decision of the American Supreme Court to annul a judgment which guaranteed the right to abortion in the United States, taken last summer, which in turn caused concern in France. In the political class, many personalities saw it as a warning and spoke out to say that it was necessary to guard against a development of the same order which deprived American women of the right to abortion in several States. And so the constitutionalization of the right to abortion has been proposed, not only on the left, but in a cross-partisan way. The head of the Renaissance deputies Aurore Bergé is, for example, in favor of it. She also tabled a bill along these lines and invited the majority to vote on the LFI text which arrived before hers in the Chamber.
But there is also opposition to this approach to enshrining the right to abortion in the Constitution, especially on the right. It is a divisive debate that parliamentarians have seized on and there are still many stages before being able to obtain a revision of the Constitution.
► To listen also: The right to abortion: a fight (1/2)