Xavier Bertrand asks LR senators “to vote for” the text, as it stands

The bill is examined on Wednesday in the Senate and part of the right wants to delete the word “guarantee” associated with “freedom” in the text. The LR president of the Hauts-de-France region calls on the Republicans not to “make a mistake” as in the past.

Before the Senate vote on the inclusion of abortion in the Constitution, Wednesday February 28, Xavier Bertrand addresses the Les Républicains (LR) senators, in the majority with the centrists. “I ask them to vote so that the right to abortion, that everything contained in the Veil law is enshrined, protected in the Constitution”says the LR president of the Hauts-de-France region on franceinfo.

The former Minister of Health is counting on them above all to adopt this bill without modifying it. “I hope there really is a consistent vote”, he says. This is far from being a detail: to move on to the next stage, the vote in Congress bringing together deputies and senators, the bill must be voted on without changing a comma. However, the wording of the text raises eyebrows among some senators from the right and the center. He predicts that “the law determines the conditions under which the freedom guaranteed to a woman to have recourse to a voluntary termination of pregnancy is exercised”. An amendment to delete the word “guarantee” for the benefit of a simple “freedom” is defended by these senators.

“It must be a guarantee”, insists Xavier Bertrand. “We have already been wrong in the past”, he says to the LRs in the High Assembly. He cites the example of marriage for all in 2013. “At the time, we did not hear the aspirations of these people of the same sex who wanted to get married. We did not hear their cry, we did not hear their sincerity”he recalls.

It is addressed in particular to President LR of the Senate. “The fact that social, societal rights are enshrined in the Constitution is not recent, is not new. Today we need this additional step”, he replies to Gérard Larcher. The latter in fact estimated on franceinfo, on January 23, that the Constitution “is not a catalog of social and societal rights”.

The senator from Yvelines emphasizes that yes, abortion “is not threatened” Today “Who is capable of saying that in five years, in ten years or in twenty years, this right will not be undermined, that we will not seek to go back?”. “Doing politics also means anticipating”asserts the declared candidate for the 2027 presidential election.