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After its adoption at first reading in October in the National Assembly, the Senate will debate until February 4 the text to revise the bioethics laws. ERIC FEFERBERG / AFP

The bioethics bill, already adopted by the National Assembly at first reading in October, is being examined in the Senate from Tuesday, January 21. In particular, it provides for the opening of medically assisted procreation (PMA) to couples of women and single women.

Article 1 of the bill concerns the opening of medically assisted procreation ( PMA ) to couples of women and single women. This emblematic societal measure, promised by Emmanuel Macron, received a first green light from senators in committee. It remains of course to vote in the Hemicycle.

An amendment against the reimbursement of the MQP

The Senate will have to rule on an amendment calling into question the assumption of responsibility of the PMA by the Health insurance. An amendment which is unlikely to be approved by the National Assembly at second reading, said lawyer Caroline Mécary, who specializes in the defense of homosexual rights, " insofar as there is a political choice that was made to open LDCs to all women, under the same conditions that exist today for heterosexual couples ”.

Resulting directly from the enlargement of the PMA, the reform of parentage appears in the text. It allows women who have not carried the baby to be recognized as one of the two parents, on an equal basis with their partner, the biological mother.

Another provision of the bill is the partial lifting of the anonymity of sperm or oocyte donors , subject to their agreement.

The text also addresses other subjects, somewhat obscured by this flagship measure. Self-preservation of gametes is for example made possible for non-medical reasons; this would allow women, for example, to freeze their oocytes for later use, at an age when fertility is declining.

Finally, the text relaxes the conditions for conducting research on embryonic stem cells.

An upper room not so opposed to the project as that

Sunday, opponents of this new bioethics law were on the street to express their disagreement. Anti-LDC demonstrators thus intended to ask the senators to " resist ". But if the elected Republicans dominate the upper house, resistance remains limited for the moment. Several signals even show a certain openness. Like the fact that the extension of medically assisted procreation to couples of women and single women had already been adopted in committee. And then the senators tabled only 280 amendments, almost ten times less than in the Assembly.

The real battle will begin this Tuesday in the hemicycle, promises all the same Bruno Retailleau, persuaded to have his troops behind him. Senators Leader LR says two-thirds of the group are against the text.

But there will be no voting instructions. No question for the right to give the image of a party braced on societal issues. Elected officials The Republicans will have the freedom to vote as they wish. Like the first of them, Gérard Larcher, the president of the Senate who never hid that he was in favor of PMA for all.

Finally, but this is the least likely scenario, if the Senate votes against the bioethics law on February 4, the text will go back to the Assembly where the LREM majority will have the last word.

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