“The U.S. Supreme Court Decision” who revoked the right to abortion in the United States “was a shock”, for Aurore Bergé. President of the Renaissance group (ex-LREM), she confirms Saturday June 25 on franceinfo to have filed “this morning” a bill to enshrine the right to abortion in the French Constitution. The MP for Yvelines insists that what happened in the United States “could happen under other majorities in France”. “It invites us to react.”
franceinfo: Why are you tabling this bill today?
The decision of the American Supreme Court was a shock, but it is above all a warning that should make us aware that women’s rights are unfortunately never acquired, even those that we think are irreversible. Today in the United States, young women in their thirties have fewer rights than their mothers had. Since that night in Missouri, they risk 15 years in prison if they resort to abortion! It invites us to react.
Do you fear the same thing in France?
Today, abortion is regulated by law in France. A law is more easily undone than what is written in stone in our Constitution. I can’t know what will happen in a few years. Look, in the United States they have gone from the presidency of Barack Obama to that of Donald Trump and even today under that of Joe Biden, there is this possibility that the Supreme Court will legalize the refusal of access to abortion in US states. Appointment after appointment, the Conservatives have made sure to have a majority and, today, other rights are threatened, such as contraception or marriage for all. This could happen under other majorities in France.
Will you accept the filing of a common text by all the groups of the National Assembly who would like it as proposed today by the Nupes, whose components had already proposed to constitutionalize the right to abortion in 2019?
We tabled the bill with Renaissance, in conjunction with the two other majority groups, the MoDem and Horizons, and with the very clear support of the government.
“I hope that at the time of the vote on this bill we will have a very large rally and I believe that it will be an intense moment of truth for all political groups so as not to be in the position.”
Aurore Bergeat franceinfo
We may also be able to see those who would oppose such a vote and recognize abortion as a fundamental right of women.
What will the process be?
It is a proposed constitutional law which therefore requires adoption by the National Assembly and the Senate as well as a referendum. I think that there will be a spirit of responsibility among the senators which will make it possible to have this proposal adopted in accordance with what it will have been adopted in the Assembly in order to be fairly quick. It is a process that takes time, but this first act must exist in the Assembly.