Abortion is not yet guaranteed by the Constitution, written in black and white in the fundamental law of the Republic, but an important step was taken this Wednesday, February 14.
The Senate Law Committee, which was working on the text proposed by the government, has in fact “decided not to oppose the constitutionalization of the freedom to resort to voluntary termination of pregnancy”, indicated the rapporteur ( related LR) Agnès Canayer.
This is an important obstacle that has been overcome in the path towards the completion of this constitutional reform.
Because this decision of the Law Commission, influential in the Senate with a right and center majority, suggests a favorable vote from all senators, when the text returns to the plenary session on February 28.
Not everything is over yet.
Senator Canayer did not fail to emphasize that there remain in the government text “a certain number of irritants”, which will have to be debated during the session.
Irritants?
If the senators are mostly in favor of including the notion of “freedom” of abortion in the Constitution, they are reluctant to add the word “guarantee” to it.
“Guaranteed freedom” (at abortion) is the formula appearing in the text drawn up by the government and already approved, by a large majority, by the National Assembly.
The prospect of a Congress at the beginning of March is very hypothetical
However, to be able to be presented before the deputies and senators gathered in Congress in order to vote for a reform of the Constitution (a three-fifths majority of parliamentarians will then be required), a text must first have been voted on identically, to the word close, by the two rooms.
Therein lies the remaining suspense: the hypothesis of a pure and simple rejection of the text is fading, but the conforming vote is not entirely acquired, despite this strong signal given by the law commission.
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A signal all the more important since, in recent days, President LR of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, whose voice carries a lot of weight, has repeated his personal hostility to the constitutionalization of abortion.
Arguing for a right which would not be in any way threatened in France on the one hand, and for a Constitution which must not become “a catalog of social and societal rights” on the other hand.
It had triggered the ire of feminists and beyond, recalling the regressions in this area in the United States and in certain European countries.
Read alsoThe inclusion of abortion in the Constitution would be “a symbol sent to the whole world”, for feminists
If the text voted on February 28 is modified (amputting the word “guaranteed” for example or increased by amendments providing freedom of action for doctors, etc.), the deputies will then also have to vote again.
Suffice to say that the executive's objective of being able to bring together the Congress in Versailles around March 5, the date initially set, is far from being... guaranteed.
Emmanuel Macron also indicated that the important thing is to achieve reform, even if it means taking time.
Especially since the dominant right in the Senate, angry with the presidential camp – between the partial censorship of the Immigration law by the Constitutional Council and the reshuffle which caught up figures like Rachida Dati – will not do it any favors.
However, Bruno Retailleau, leader of the LR senators, personally hostile to constitutional reform, will leave the freedom of voting to his troops.