The delicate bioethics bill, which opens medically assisted procreation (PMA) to all women, must finally be examined at second reading in the National Assembly from July 27, AFP learned on Wednesday from a parliamentary source.
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The text will be on the deputies' menu the week before the summer break, in accordance with a decision taken by the conference of the presidents of the Assembly. It was originally scheduled to start on July 6, but work had been suspended pending the government of Jean Castex.
Adopted in committee in early July
Adopted in committee at the beginning of July after 37 hours of discussion, the bill brings the flagship measure of the extension of the PMA to single women and couples of women. It also includes a reform of parentage, a modification of access to origins for people born thanks to a sperm donation or even self-preservation of oocytes.
A scheduled legislative time of 25 hours has been set for the duration of the debates at the Palais Bourbon, which will actually last longer, because the interventions of the government and the rapporteurs of the text are not counted in this time.
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At first reading, more than 2,500 amendments had been tabled and the text had been adopted in October 2019 after two and a half weeks of passionate discussion. The Senate then adopted it but modified it in February 2020.
" Forceps " exam
Some LRs were moved, like Patrick Hetzel during questions to the government on Wednesday, of a " forceps " examination in July, in conditions that did not allow for a " serene and peaceful " debate . " Call a spade a spade, say that you are against the possibility that we want to give couples of women, single women, of being able to have children and a family!" "Retorted the Minister of Health Olivier Véran.
In committee at the Palais Bourbon, the deputies voted for a few measures which had nevertheless been rejected during the first reading of the text: the authorization of the donation of gametes directed between two women within the same couple, if one of she suffers from infertility (technique called ROPA), and also a disposition on the sensitive subject of the “ baby medication ”.
Among the opponents of this bill, the association Alliance Vita saw it as " serious transgressions ", pleading in a press release for " stop (er) doing anything ". In the Senate, the examination at second reading should take place " from October, " said Minister of Relations with Parliament Marc Fesneau in mid-June.