Like a deja vu. The Renaissance group (ex-LREM) in the National Assembly had barely finalized its bill to register the right to abortion in the marble of the French Constitution, Saturday June 25, that the elected representatives of the opposition fell on him. The left criticizes the majority for having adopted on its own a proposal already formulated twice during the previous legislature (and that the majority had elthe same retorted).
The deputy La France insoumise (LFI) Bastien Lachaud did not fail to point out on Saturday that his movement did notwon’t wait for the Supreme Court of the United States revokes this constitutional right to propose to protect voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) in France. “LREM had refused the inclusion of the right to abortion in the Constitution in 2018 when La France insoumise had proposed it”writes the elected official of Seine-Saint-Denis on Twitter.
Let’s rewind. In July 2018, an amendment (No. 1115) carried by LFI proposes to insert in the Constitution the right to abortion. It was rejected on July 11 in the National Assembly. In total, 145 deputies voted against (37 for, 14 abstentions). Among them are 100 LREM elected officials, including Gabriel Attal (current Budget Minister), Brigitte Bourguignon (Minister of Health) or Olivia Grégoire (government spokesperson). We also find the name of Yaël Braun-Pivet, today the majority candidate for the perch. “This protection requires a constant fight in our public policies and in our legislation, as well as careful monitoring of the respect of these rights, and not by their inscription in the Constitution, which is neither necessary nor useful”, then reacted the current Minister of Overseas.
“There is no need to brandish fears.”
Yaël Braun-Pivet, current Minister of Overseasto the National Assembly
Lhe Keeper of the Seals at the time, Nicole Belloubet, who also spoke in the hemicyle, did not say anything else: “We have a sufficiently guaranteed right, recognized by the Constitutional Council as a component of women’s freedom”.
️Small reminder to the attention of journalists in particular who may have escaped the 2018 debates on the constitutional reform and the proposal for @FiAssemblee rejected by the macronists including the probable future president of the Assembly then rapporteur.#RoeVsWade #abortion https://t.co/Drmy1AQsY1
— Deputy Obono (@Deputee_Obono) June 25, 2022
A year later, in July 2019, another attempt. A constitutional bill, carried by left-wing deputies, is tabled to, again, include abortion in the Constitution. “I see what is happening all over the world, in Europe, with for example the Hungary of Victor Orban, who since 2013 has questioned this fundamental right in the Constitution. And what we say, with my colleagues, is that in France, despite all these advances since the Veil law, unfortunately there is not an offense of obstruction as one can understand by law, but a form of obstruction today for all these women who resort to abortionemphasizes Luc Carvounas, at the time Socialist deputy and member of the National Assembly delegation for women’s rights.
But again, it doesn’t work. In question: the presidential majority did not want to register the initiative on the agenda, as Luc Carvounas explains to franceinfo. “I remember very well. We had made this initiative coincide with the first anniversary of the pantheonization of Simone Veil”, details at franceinfo the current mayor of Alfortville (Val-de-Marne) who continues, a bit teasingly: “I see that we are taking up our idea… If the deputies of the majority wish it, the text is ready, it is in the boxes. I do not want to get into a controversy: if our work can be used now, it is very good”.
Forwhat did the majority reject in 2018 this proposal to finally (re)propose it four years later? Asked, a LREM deputy from the west of France, who had voted against at the time, tries an explanation: “In 2018, it was an amendment to a bill whose title was: ‘For a more representative, responsible and efficient democracy’. Apart from the fact that the amendment was, in my view, irrelevant to the objective of this bill, in my view it required a specific debate in the Chamber because the subject [le droit à l’avortement] is far too important to discuss in a few minutes.”
In the ranks of LFI, this change of mind makes you smile. L’elected from Seine-Saint-Denis Clémentine Autain, who said in 2018 “not understanding why there is blockage on the side of the government and the majority to adopt an element which normally should gather a broad consensus”, evoked “a welcome turnaround” because “the right to abortion is a fundamental right”. “Better late than never”, agrees another LFI parliamentarian to franceinfo. “But what bothers me more is the recovery side.”
A patching up is however still possible between one and the other. Nupes, the new left alliance, now proposes to file a common text for all groups parliamentarians who so wish to include abortion in the Constitution. As a symbol, this could be one of the first transpartisan texts adopted during the new legislature, after several days of political crisis since the second round of legislative elections.