“No woman may be deprived of the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy.” The deputies validated a constitutional bill, Wednesday, November 9 in committee, in order to include the right to abortion in the Constitution. The idea is to guard against possible challenges, such as those observed in particular in the United States. The short text, carried by the leader of the Renaissance deputies, Aurore Bergé, must now be examined in the hemicycle during the week of November 28.
Another text proposing to include this right in the fundamental law, proposed by his LFI counterpart, Mathilde Panot, must arrive in the hemicycle on November 24, after a passage in the law commission scheduled for November 16. Aurore Bergé was delighted that a majority “seems to emerge in the Assembly” on this topic, “regardless of the group that proposed this initiative”.
“It is neither for the symbol, nor by political opportunism, it is because it is up to us today to take this decisive step together”pleaded the deputy, specially returned to the Assembly to defend her text, after giving birth at the end of October. “I will find my daughter right after”she launched to the address of those “who would wonder about his presence”.
His initiative was announced in June, in the wake of a resounding decision by the highest court in the United States, which had weakened the right to abortion for American women. Defenders of the inclusion of the right to abortion in the Constitution, in the presidential majority as well as on the left, point out that this achievement is also weakened in European countries, citing in particular Poland.
Left-wing deputies pleaded, without success, for a right to contraception to also be included in the Constitution, as proposed in the text tabled by LFI. Elected LR and RN officials, on the other hand, expressed reluctance regarding the text adopted on Wednesday. “The right to abortion is absolutely not threatened in France”argued MP RN Pascale Bordes, criticizing a formulation that “suggests that access would be unconditional and absolute”.