Activists demonstrate in the Senate to include the right to abortion in the Constitution. (Paris, February 1, 2023) Ludovic Marin / AFP
On Wednesday, Emmanuel Macron announced that he wants to include in the Constitution “the freedom to apply for voluntary termination of pregnancy”. Behind this adoption is the historic decision of the United States Supreme Court last summer to revoke the right to abortion.
An important step for women’s rights. This Wednesday, March 8, on International Women’s Day, Emmanuel Macron announced that he wants to include in the Constitution “the freedom to seek voluntary abortion (IVG)”. In line with the fight for the right to abortion by Giselle Halimi, who paid tribute, the president of the republic assured that he would bring a constitutional bill “in the coming months”.
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Already on February 1, the Senate, with a right-wing majority, voted 166 to 152 against the inclusion of “women’s freedom” to resort to artificial abortion in the Constitution. This wording rejects the notion of “right” demanded by the left, but allows the parliamentary shuttle to continue. Indeed, the project has been on the table for several months. In the background, the United States Supreme Court’s historic decision last summer to strike down abortion rights. Update on schedule.
Summer of 2022. Abortion is under threat in the United States
Nothing is ever taken for granted when it comes to women’s right to control their bodies. And Americans learned that the hard way last summer. The Supreme Court returned on June 24 in its Roe vs. Wade” in 1973, which considered abortion a federally guaranteed right. Since then, several states, the most conservative, have banned or restricted the use of abortion. To the dismay of the country’s feminists and women.
At the same time, women’s rights have also weakened in Europe. While Malta still bans abortion, Poland made it almost illegal in 2021, eliminating the option to seek it in the event of fetal malformation. Hungary, in turn, has limited this right, because women who want to have an abortion have been forced to listen to the heartbeat of the fetus since September.
Fearing that one day the situation in France would deteriorate, some preferred to take the lead. The only bulwark for them is the enshrining of the right to abortion in the 1958 Constitution.
October 7, 2022: Mathilde Panot presents a constitutional bill
On the basis of this observation, La France Insoumise (LFI) MP Mathilde Pano and several of her colleagues presented a text on October 7 in which they demanded the inclusion of the right to abortion in the Constitution among the individual fundamentals. freedoms.. As well as the prohibition of the death penalty. The challenge for parliamentarians is multiple: to establish both the fundamental nature of this right and the need to regulate it by law. But there is also talk about the inclusion of the principle of non-regression, which would lead to the unconstitutionality of any future attack.
October 19, 2022: The Senate rejects the first text from ecologist Melanie Vogel
A few weeks later, in October, the Senate voted 139 to 172 to reject the first proposed constitutional law, this time brought by environmentalist Melanie Fogel and signed by seven of the eight Senate senators. groups except Republicans (LR). The verdict of the Senate Legal Committee. The inclusion of the constitutional right to abortion is not justified by the situation in France.
24 November 2022: adopted at first reading by MEPs
On November 24, the National Assembly adopted the draft in the first reading with a ratio of 337 “for”, 32 “against” votes and 18 abstentions. The text was approved by the majority of Nupes, the presidential camp and even the elected representatives of the National Rally, after about five hours of exchanges, marked by many upsets on all the benches of the hemicycle.
February 1, 2023: Senate says yes to constitutionalizing abortion
After a passionate debate, the senators on Wednesday, February 1, accepted the constitutional bill put forward by the LFI. The text, however, was rewritten by Senator L.R. With a correction by Philip Bass. The latter proposes to supplement Article 34 of the Constitution with the following formula. “The law defines the conditions under which a woman’s freedom to terminate a pregnancy is exercised.” An amendment that no longer refers to the “right” to have an abortion as it originally existed.
A socialist group immediately hailed “a major step forward for women’s rights”, while an environmental group hailed a “historic victory”. However, the victory is incomplete. The left regrets the change in wording, while assuming that they acted “responsibly”. And for good reason. An outright rejection of the text by the Senate would end in its burial.
March 8, 2023: Emmanuel Macron announces that he wants to include abortion in the Constitution
On Wednesday, March 8, Emmanuel Macron announced that he wants to include abortion in the Constitution “in the coming months”. The decision, which was confirmed as part of a national ceremony dedicated to the late feminist lawyer Gisele Halimi, whose abortion was one of the “fierce” fights. I want today (…) to engrave the freedom of women to resort to voluntary termination of pregnancy (in the basic law). (…) Solemnly assure that nothing can prevent or cancel what will thus be irreversible,” the President of the Republic announced from Paris from the audience hall of the first chamber of the Court of Appeal of the Chamber of Justice.
And now ?
The text passed by senators on first reading must now return to the National Assembly and then the Senate for a second reading, as it was not voted on within the same time frame. If the deputies ratify the wording, the text can be submitted to a referendum or a government bill, which will avoid going to a vote. And this is exactly what Emmanuel Macron just announced on March 8, during the tribute to Gisele Halimi. “In this case, instead of a referendum (a politically delicate procedure, because it can create a danger of debates on a topic that has a consensus to date), he can present the text to the Congress, that is, to the session of the Assembly and the Senate. , where he must collect three-fifths of the votes for the text to be accepted”, we can read live. world . A case to follow.
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Source: Le Figaro
