The National Assembly voted, on Friday, September 27th, to applause, the opening of the PMA to all women, flagship measure of bioethics bill considered in first reading, despite strong opposition from the right. This article, which has been hotly debated since Wednesday, was adopted by 55 votes to 17, with 3 abstentions, with several political groups being divided.

Medically assisted procreation (PMA), which makes it possible to have a child by means of various medical techniques (artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization ...), is currently reserved for heterosexual couples. This extended PMA for lesbian couples and single women, supported by the majority and the left, will be reimbursed by the Secu.

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The Minister of Health, Agnès Buzyn, aims at a final adoption of the bill before the summer, which would allow an effective access of the PMA to all women "immediately from the law promulgated".

An "equality" measure

Since the start of the exchanges at the beginning of the week in the hemicycle, deputies, mainly on the right and on the extreme right, have denounced a "fatherless PMA" which would inevitably lead to the gestation by others (GPA), even if the government keeps repeating that this one remains "an absolute prohibition in France".

Conversely, the majority and the left support in the opening of the PMA a measure of "equality", which allows to adapt the right to the state of society.

Several elected members voted against the majority of their group members: at LR, Maxime Minot voted for Article 1, and Damien Abad abstained. At LREM, Blandine Brocard, Marie Tamarelle-Verhaeghe and Liliana Tanguy voted against, while Benoît Potterie and Annie Vidal abstained; at MoDem, Jean-Louis Bourlanges voted against.

Authorized PMA in ten EU countries

The PMA is already allowed for lesbian couples and single women in ten out of 28 European Union countries: Portugal, Spain, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.

Seven allow it to single women but not to lesbian couples: Estonia, Latvia, Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus. Austria and Malta allow lesbian couples but not single women.

With AFP