Le Figaro Lyon
While the inclusion of the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) in the Constitution must be debated this Wednesday in the Senate, Mgr Olivier de Germay, the Archbishop of Lyon, published a press release on Tuesday to criticize this decision of the government .
“If the law were adopted, France would put on the same level the equal dignity of all human life - a principle with constitutional value - and freedom of access to abortion.
How can we explain such a contradiction?
asked Philippe Barbarin's successor.
The archbishop appointed to Lyon in October 2020 points to
“the succession of so-called societal laws passed in France over the past few decades”
and the
“sad record of 234,300 IVGs established in France in 2023 while the trend is downward everywhere else in Europe.”
And to criticize the
“focus on individual rights while forgetting or underestimating their social significance.
But social cohesion can only deteriorate - isn't that what we are seeing today?
- if we are content to define individual rights without situating the person in the play of the relationships which constitute them
,” he adds.
“A denial of democracy”
The man of the Church also deplores the difficulty “
of expressing oneself on this subject without taking the risk of becoming a media target.
Many public figures have also deserted the debate.
What will become of the latter if the law were to be adopted?
(...) Locking things down definitively to anticipate such a hypothesis, isn’t that a denial of democracy?”
Adopted by the National Assembly on January 30, the law aimed at enshrining in the Constitution the freedom of women to resort to abortion will be studied this Wednesday at the Palais du Luxembourg.
If adopted by the Senate, a Congress would then be convened in Versailles during which the text must be adopted by three-fifths of parliamentarians to become officially constitutional.