This green light from the Law Commission comes a week after the one that gave another constitutional bill, with the same objective and led by the presidential Renaissance party. But his exam in session is not scheduled until November 28.
This competition did not prevent the presidential majority from voting in favor of the LFI proposal, not without some tension when Renaissance wanted to bring the wording closer to that of its own text, before changing its mind.
Linking access to contraception and the right to abortion
“No one can violate the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy and contraception”: unlike the text of the Macronista deputies, the LFI one also mentions contraception.
It is a “corollary”, argued its leader Mathilde Panot, because “generally we attack the right to contraception when we want to attack abortion.”
Mathilde Panot also defended the formulation “no one can harm”, more “inclusive” than that of the Renaissance (“No woman can be deprived of the right” to abortion) on the grounds that it does not exclude transgender people.
reluctant RN and LR
The rewrites of the text are not excluded in the chamber, the Insoumis having opened the door to the proposals of the MoDem.
The LR group recalled its “conditions” to support the constitutionalization: “we must be sure that it does not question the conditionality of access to abortion,” said deputy Aurélien Pradié.
Deputy RN Pascale Bordes also said she feared that the right to abortion was “unconditional and absolute.”
Arguments intended to mask the extreme right’s hostility towards abortion according to LFI, which hailed “a historic victory” after the committee vote.
The Senate said no.
Even in the event of a positive vote in session, the inclusion of the right to abortion in the Constitution currently faces opposition from the Senate, which rejected a text similar to the LFI’s in October.
However, any proposed constitutional law must be voted on in the same terms by the two assemblies, before being submitted to a referendum. This last step could be avoided if it is a bill, coming from the executive.
“We would be ready to vote for it,” said Ms Panot, worried that a referendum would lead to “a campaign in which anti-choice movements would galvanize”.
Defenders of the inclusion of the right to abortion in the Constitution argue that this achievement must be better protected, in light of the challenges recently observed in the United States or even in Europe.
Source: BFM TV
