The right-wing majority Senate immediately rejected Wednesday, January 19 at second reading a bill allowing the extension of the legal duration of voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG), with a chaotic parliamentary course.
Read alsoRoberta Metsola, an anti-abortion favorite for the perch of the European Parliament
The senatorial majority voted, by 202 votes against 138, the preliminary question presented by the Social Affairs Committee, a procedural motion which entails 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
”, declared the president LR of the commission Catherine Deroche.
12 to 14 weeks
Alain Milon (LR) for his part considered that the bill was “
undoubtedly a good political coup, but a bad coup for women
”. He said that at 14 weeks, abortion was "
often an unsustainable operation for many professionals
", with the risk of seeing some practitioners refuse to perform 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 January 20, "
which opens the way to adoption before the end of the five-year term
", according to Albane Gaillot. 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 pass one last time before the deputies, with a view to its final adoption.
The government "
fiercely defends
" the right to abortion, insisted the Minister for Autonomy Brigitte Bourguignon, stressing that "
this commitment, the President of the Republic reaffirmed it with force this very morning
".
Emmanuel Macron wished Wednesday before the European Parliament that the right to abortion be integrated into the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU.
Read alsoIVG: from the Veil law to today, 40 years of legal battle to expand access to abortion
For her part, the PS rapporteur for the text in the Senate, Laurence Rossignol, judged that “
the government is far from having been a facilitator for this bill
”.
The Senate had rejected the bill for the first time a year ago, after its adoption at first reading by the National Assembly in October 2020. After almost falling by the wayside, it was finally taken up at second reading at the Assembly by the patron of LREM deputies Christophe Castaner.
The deputies then made the choice not to remove the double conscience clause which allows doctors to refuse to perform abortion, a very controversial provision of the text.
