Paris (AFP)

The right-winged Senate rewrote Thursday during the first reading of the bioethics bill, against the advice of the government, the article establishing a new mode of parentage for the children of female couples, consequence of the opening of the PMA.

The National Assembly will, however, have the final say.

The government wants these couples to go through an early recognition of the child before a notary, as can heterosexual couples who are not married. The woman who did not carry the baby will thus be recognized as one of the two parents, on an equal footing with her partner who gives birth.

The Senate adopted a very technical amendment by Senator LR Sophie Primas, which proposes to establish the parentage of the intended mother, the one who did not give birth, by way of adoption, accompanied by a whole lot of guarantees .

The amendment was adopted with the votes of the great majority of the LR group, two-thirds of the centrists and half of the Independent group. The CRCE group with a communist majority and almost all of the PS, LREM and RDSE groups with a radical majority voted against.

"We must not upset the general system of parentage," argued the leader of LR Senators, Bruno Retailleau, accusing the government of making a choice not "legal", but "ideological". "You are clearing the way for surrogacy tomorrow," he added.

On the left, Pierre Laurent (CRCE) judged on the contrary the adoption procedure "not adapted", given that "there is a situation of equality in the intention of the PMA between the two women".

The Keeper of the Seals, Nicole Belloubet, defended the government mechanism which "made the choice of equality, between the two mothers ab initio". "Joint recognition will make the two women mothers at the same time."

In the evening, while opponents of Medically Assisted Procreation (PMA) demonstrated again near the Luxembourg Palace, the senators debated at length the Gestation Pour Autrui (GPA), several speakers recalling, like Marie -Pierre de La Gontrie (PS) that the text was "absolutely not intended" initially to deal with this subject.

After very legal discussions, they gave the green light to an article introduced in committee on the initiative of Bruno Retailleau which consolidates the ban on surrogacy in France. It excludes the transcription to the civil status of birth certificates drawn up abroad mentioning two fathers or mentioning as mother a woman other than the one who gave birth.

Nicole Belloubet defended for her part in vain an amendment aiming to revert to a recent jurisprudence of the Court of Cassation, rejected by 255 votes against 63. The government proposed that the "reality" of a foreign civil status act be "appreciated under French law" and not the law of the country where the surrogacy was carried out.

The amendment, described as "cosmetic" by Philippe Bas (LR), intended to revert to previous case law providing for a transcription for the biological parent and "establishment of the parentage of the intended parent by adoption under the control of the judge "said the minister.

After the rejection of the government amendment, Ms. Belloubet opposed the amendments to delete the senatorial clause, arguing that it needed "a hook in the Senate to be able to continue the debate" in the parliamentary shuttle and saying she was in favor of what the legislator "takes again the hand on this question".

© 2020 AFP