The Senate again opposes the extension of the duration of the voluntary termination of pregnancy

It’s no. The right-wing majority Senate immediately rejected at second reading, Wednesday, January 19, a bill allowing the extension of the legal duration of voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG). In detail, the senatorial majority voted, by 202 votes against 138, the preliminary question presented by the Social Affairs Committee, a procedural motion which leads to the rejection of a text without discussion of its articles.

“We are not questioning the right to abortion, but simply we have a disagreement on the extension of the deadlines”, said the LR president of the commission, Catherine Deroche.

Alain Milon (LR) for his part considered that the bill was “probably a good political move, but a bad move for women”. He claimed that at 14 weeks, abortion was “an often unsustainable operation for many professionals”, with the risk of seeing some practitioners refuse to practice it.

Supported by the left, the text carried by the ex-LREM MP Albane Gaillot must in particular allow the extension of the legal duration of abortion from 12 to 14 weeks, to respond to a lack of practitioners and the gradual closure of centers IVG.

Next step: the meeting of a joint committee of deputies and senators on 20 January. An agreement in the CMP appears impossible, but the text is already on the agenda of the National Assembly on February 9 and in the Senate on February 16. It will still have to go one last time before the deputies, with a view to its final adoption, normally “before the end of the quinquennium”, according to Albania Gaillot.