In France, the bill aiming to include voluntary termination of pregnancy in the Constitution begins its parliamentary journey this Wednesday, January 24. The President of the Senate Gérard Larcher reiterated that he was opposed to it.
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If the government led by Gabriel Attal seems to lean to the right, the conservatives do not necessarily follow it on voluntary termination of pregnancy. This is evidenced by Gérard Larcher’s statement this Tuesday morning on Franceinfo. “ Abortion is not threatened in our country. If it were threatened, believe me, I would fight for it to be maintained. But I think that the Constitution is not a catalog of social and societal rights “, argued the leader of the senators, a figure of the Republicans, who dominate the upper house.
The Republicans, always tense on societal issues, regret that the text adopted last year in the Senate, with its very cautious formula, was not retained. “ By not choosing the Senate version, the President of the Republic takes the risk of the failure of this text », Warns Olivier Marleix, the leader of the LR deputies. In February 2023, the upper house had in fact achieved a narrow majority for the constitutionalization of abortion, voted 166 votes against 152. But at the time, the text only mentioned “the freedom of the woman to terminate to her pregnancy. The government is proposing a formulation close to that of the senators, but adding the notion of “guaranteed freedom”.
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“ I do not agree with this wording, I think it could have been better, but I think that if we want it to be in the Constitution, we must accept this compromise. It’s better than nothing », Judge for his part Jérémie Iordanoff, environmentalist deputy, member of Nupes. If the votes of the left seem certain, this is not necessarily the case for those of the right. Among the majority, however, optimism remains the order of the day. “ Gérard Larcher is only repeating what he has been saying for two and a half years, tempers Ludovic Mendes, from the Renaissance group. He is not the one who will decide for all the senators. You must always remain optimistic. »
In the event of a favorable vote in the Assembly on January 30, the text would then go to the Senate the week of February 26, before a meeting of the Congress in Versailles (deputies and senators) at the beginning of March, where a three-fifths majority will be necessary to conclude the parliamentary review.
(And with AFP)