Emmanuel Macron’s campaign promise, the inclusion in the Constitution of “freedom guaranteed” to resort to voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) will be debated by Parliament on Wednesday. Questioned on this subject, the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, however once again opposed this measure on Tuesday January 23.
“Abortion is not threatened in our country. If it were threatened, believe me, I would fight for it to be maintained. But I think that the Constitution is not a catalog of social and societal rights”argued the elected representative Les Républicains on Franceinfo.
“By tradition [en tant que président du Sénat], I don’t vote, but I’m giving you a very personal opinion. In conscience, I think that the Constitution is not that catalog”he added. “The first concern of mine is the conditions in which we practice voluntary termination of pregnancy”further pleaded Mr. Larcher, recalling “that we have closed 130 centers in more than ten years” who were dedicated to abortion.
The term “freedom” chosen rather than “right”
Before a possible adoption of the modification of the Basic Law by the Congress (bringing together deputies and senators), which could take place at the beginning of March, if a three-fifths majority emerges, the draft constitutional revision presented in mid-December in the Council of Ministers must first be voted on in the same terms by the National Assembly and the Senate. Examination of the text will begin on Wednesday in the Assembly.
In the event of adoption in the Hemicycle, rather likely after a favorable vote already granted in the law committee, the text will then be submitted to the Senate, where the right and its centrist allies dominate the ranks.
Against a backdrop of concern about the challenges to the right to abortion, particularly in the United States, but also in Europe, the government’s text plans to include in the Constitution the fact that “the law determines the conditions in which the freedom guaranteed to women to have recourse is exercised” to abortion.
He is trying to find a middle path between the National Assembly, which had voted at the end of 2022 a text carried by the group La France insoumise to guarantee the“access to the right to abortion”and the Senate, which in February approved a version evoking the “freedom of the woman to terminate her pregnancy”. It therefore establishes the notion of “freedom guaranteed”.
“We are compromising on the wording, I hope it will lead to a favorable vote in the Senate”reacted Tuesday morning the head of the “rebellious” deputies, Mathilde Panot, to the press, at the Assembly. “It is the ultimate freedom of each and every person to be able to dispose of their body, this has its place in our Constitution”she added.