Behind the tribute, the symbol.
Emmanuel Macron announced on Wednesday that he wanted to include "
in the coming months
" abortion in the Constitution.
A decision confirmed on the sidelines of the national ceremony dedicated to the late feminist lawyer, Gisèle 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 fundamental law).
(…) To solemnly assure that nothing can hinder or undo what will thus be irreversible
”, declared the President of the Republic, from the audience room of the first chamber of the Court of Appeal of the Palace of Justice from Paris.
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On the occasion of "International Women's Rights Day", the Head of State therefore takes up the philosophy of the bill initially carried by the patroness of the Renaissance deputies, Aurore Bergé.
At the start of the legislature, the president of the majority group of the Assembly had stepped up to the plate in reaction to a news coming from the United States: an unprecedented decision of the Supreme Court, calling into question this right yet considered fundamental until then.
“
My conviction as a woman, a citizen and a parliamentarian is that before the end of the mandate, the Constitution will have been modified and will integrate the right to abortion
“, had then declared the elected official of Yvelines, with the displayed support of Matignon.
Hence, a few weeks later, the unanimous vote of his troops in favor of the similar text carried by the Insoumise Mathilde Panot, allowing its very wide adoption by the Lower House.
The favorable Senate
With the green light obtained at the Palais Bourbon, the subject then landed in the Senate where, against all expectations, the right-wing majority in turn came out in favor of the constitutionalization of abortion.
With one detail, however: the parliamentarians of the Upper House insisted that only the
"freedom of women"
to have recourse to abortion - and not the
"right"
- be engraved in the marble of the fundamental law.
After these two ballots going more or less in the same direction, a final stage was missing before a possible referendum was convened: the National Assembly and the Senate still had to agree on an identical wording.
Majority and opposition combined, parliamentarians were then waiting for a gesture from the government to speed up the process.
Like the rapid tabling, by the executive, of a consensual bill, prior to the forthcoming convening of a Congress at Versailles.
Precisely the process initiated this Wednesday by Emmanuel Macron.