Paris (AFP)

The Senate with a right-wing majority is preparing to vote on Wednesday for the opening of the PMA to all women, an emblematic measure of the bioethics bill that divides the right and the center.

After a first green light from senators in committee, the extension of access to medically assisted procreation (PMA) to couples of women and single women took an additional step on Tuesday evening, with the rejection of several amendments aimed at l 'remove text.

The vote on the first article, which enshrines this campaign promise from Emmanuel Macron, will not take place until late Wednesday afternoon, around fifty amendments remain to be examined.

The attempts to delete article 1, brought by senators of the senatorial majority - LR and centrists - but also by an elected LREM, were rejected by 126 votes for, 162 against and 37 abstentions.

By way of comparison, in 2013, the bill opening marriage to same-sex couples had only been adopted in the Senate by five votes, after a foot-to-foot fight by the right against the text brought by the Minister socialist Christiane Taubira.

A majority of LR senators (83 out of 144), led by President Bruno Retailleau, voted to abolish the PMA for all, 23 voted against, 24 abstained and 14 did not vote. The centrist group was divided between 24 for, 17 against, 5 abstentions and 5 senators who did not take part in the vote.

The left is overwhelmingly in favor of extending the PMA, even if 3 PS senators voted in favor of its abolition, as well as an elected representative attached to the CRCE group with a communist majority.

More surprisingly, 5 of the 24 senators from the LREM presidential majority group voted for the abolition, including Alain Richard.

- Refund -

The Senate should give its approval to the version of the text adopted in committee, which reserves the assumption of responsibility by the health insurance to the requests based on a medical criterion.

The government will try to reinstate, by way of amendment, the care for all women, provided for in the initial text. Similar amendments are brought by senators from different sides, but with little chance of being adopted.

On Tuesday evening, the Senate voted to maintain a medical criterion for heterosexual couples using PMA, which the government wants to remove.

The PMA is "seen by the Senate in a much less open way" than by the government or the National Assembly, underlines Jacques Bigot (PS) while Laurence Cohen (CRCE) points to a "deviation from the spirit of the text".

Senators opposed to the extension of the PMA draw their arguments: risk of "sliding" towards surrogacy (gestation for others), questioning about parenthood and the fact of "organizing the production of fatherless orphans" (Jean- Pierre Leleux, LR), risk of commodification or even "first artificialization of the creation of life" (Alain Richard).

They received support Tuesday evening from about 150 to 200 opponents of the PMA for all who had gathered in front of the Luxembourg Palace, hoping to further influence the vote.

Supporters of the opening of the PMA plead them "a measure in favor of equality" (Laurence Cohen). "We maintain that these children are no more unhappy or less fortunate than the others," insisted Marie-Pierre de la Gontrie (PS).

Heavy debates are still expected on Wednesday on post-mortem PMA, then a little later on the issue of parentage.

The examination of the bill must continue over two weeks, before a vote on the entire text on February 4. A second reading will then be organized in the National Assembly and the Senate, the deputies having the final say.

© 2020 AFP