“Did you cry too?”
This is the question addressed by one feminist activist to another, this Wednesday, February 28, at the Luxembourg Palace.
During the evening, senators voted in favor of including abortion in the Constitution.
All in the same terms as the National Assembly.
Emmanuel Macron has since summoned parliamentarians, who will participate in a Congress in Versailles on March 4, in order to once again vote on the text.
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The adoption of the latter by the Senate sparked a wave of emotion among feminist activists.
In particular with Mélanie Vogel, environmentalist senator and fervent defender of this text.
Two years ago, it in fact introduced a bill intended to include abortion in the Constitution, but encountered the refusal of the senatorial majority of the right and the center.
It was therefore with particular emotion that she welcomed the Senate's decision.
Also read “We are writing history”: the Senate approves the inclusion of the right to abortion in the Constitution
A “historic” day
Receiving a standing ovation from dozens of people as she left the chamber, the senator shed a few tears before being hugged by a colleague.
Feminist activists also welcomed this news with cries of joy.
“We did it, we succeeded!” they chanted.
“Serene” and “confident” about the decision taken during the future Congress in Versailles, they celebrated a “historic day”.
“It’s a magnificent message that we’re sending to the whole world at a time when the reactionaries are gaining ground,” responded Mélanie Vogel.
“I am extremely relieved that the Senate has not hindered this project to constitutionalize abortion, which is massively supported by the French population,” declared Anne-Cécile Mailfert, president of the Women’s Foundation, at the 'AFP.
Now we can’t wait until March 4.”
For his part, Laurence Rossignol hailed “a victory for all French women and men”.
“The polls were a strong argument,” she argued.
France could thus become the first country to include the right to abortion in the Constitution.