Why is Gérard Larcher opposed to including abortion in the constitution?

On the eve of the National Assembly’s examination of the bill including voluntary termination of pregnancy in the Constitution, the President of the Senate Gérard Larcher believes that “abortion is not threatened in our country”.

While a text including “guaranteed freedom” for a woman to have recourse to a voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) in the Constitution will be presented on January 24 to the National Assembly, then examined by the Senate, Gérard Larcher spoke on the subject this Tuesday, January 23 at the microphone of France Info. However, a promise from Emmanuel Macron, the inclusion of abortion in the Constitution is not to the taste of the President of the Senate: “I think that abortion is not threatened in our country. There is already a certain number of decisions of the Constitutional Council which guarantee abortion” he indicated.

“I think that the Constitution is not a catalog of social rights”

After passing through the National Assembly, the bill aimed at enshrining in the Constitution the “freedom” of recourse to abortion will head to the Senate at the end of February, before the key date of March 5, namely the Congress ( meeting of the two assemblies, necessary for the adoption of a constitutional bill). As reported byAFPGérard Larcher already expressed a “reservation” yesterday, during the ceremony of greetings from the president of the Protestant Federation of France, Christian Krieger. “I think that the Constitution is not a catalog of social and societal rights” he launched this Tuesday morning on France Info.

“He wants us to respect the Senate. He has the impression that he is being presented with a fait accompli” indicate two Senate heavyweights to Politico. The president of the LR group in the Senate, Bruno Retailleau, remains personally opposed to the constitutionalization of abortion. “This timetable assumes that the Senate obediently adopts the version of the National Assembly, which is unlikely to be the case” he explains at Politico. The boss of the centrist senators, Hervé Marseille, finds it “idiotic” to announce so quickly a date to convene the Congress.

As a reminder, on Wednesday January 17, the deputies of the Law Committee gave a first positive opinion to the inclusion of abortion in the Constitution. For adoption by the Congress of Parliament in early March, the constitutional revision project must absolutely be voted on in the same terms by the National Assembly and the Senate. “I have always been very favorable to abortion” indicated the President of the Senate Gérard Larcher this Tuesday morning, still on France Info. “The first concern of mine is the conditions in which voluntary termination of pregnancy is practiced. In more than ten years, we have closed 130 centers which were dedicated to this abortion.”