Suspense in the Upper House: the inclusion of voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) in the Constitution encountered, Wednesday February 28, the reluctance of the right during an undecided vote in the Senate, where some could try to slow down the reform if there are not enough people to reject it.

The debates promise to be tense from 4:30 p.m. at the Palais du Luxembourg.

On the one hand, the government supported by the left in favor of this revision promised by Emmanuel Macron;

on the other, part of the right and centrists still skeptical of the formulation adopted by the executive.

“The law determines the conditions under which the freedom guaranteed to a woman to have recourse to a voluntary termination of pregnancy is exercised.”

The text submitted to the vote of the 348 senators struggles to convince the ranks of the senatorial majority, an alliance between The Republicans (LR) and the centrist group.

See alsoInclusion of abortion in the Constitution: “A symbol for the whole world”

However, a favorable vote – and without modification – from the Upper House is a prerequisite for this constitutional revision supported by 86% of French people, according to an Ifop poll from November 2022.

Modifying the supreme text is not simple: the National Assembly and the Senate must validate the reform identically, before the meeting of a Congress of Parliament in Versailles where a three-fifths majority will be required.

Contested agenda

After the Assembly, almost unanimous at the end of January, the Senate vote is the most perilous stage of the process: the three leaders of the senatorial majority – the president of the Senate Gérard Larcher, the boss of the LR group Bruno Retailleau and that of the group centrist Hervé Marseille – are in fact opposed to the reform.

“There is no threat to abortion in France,” insists Bruno Retailleau.

“The government cannot impose a timetable on us in disregard of the parliamentary debate,” he adds to AFP, still scalded by the agenda put forward at the end of 2023 by Emmanuel Macron.

The president had planned to convene Congress on March 4, which implied a Senate vote without editorial changes... Nothing worse to offend the senatorial right.

Since then, the executive has remained silent on the agenda, even if a government source confirms that March 4 is still a “preferred scenario”.

See also “We think of the Americans, the Hungarians”: French women demonstrate for the right to abortion

“We will take the time it takes”, repeats over and over again the Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, assuring that France would become “the first country in the world to protect [constitutionally] the freedom of women to have their body", while this is called into question in the United States or in certain European countries.

Associations defending women's rights such as groups opposing abortion have increased initiatives in recent days to convince senators.

Several pro and anti-constitutionalization rallies are announced near the Senate in the afternoon.

Don't "get into the wrong fight"

In the ranks of the right, social or family pressure has swung certain votes: in private, several senators recognize that they have changed their minds and will not oppose the reform, suggesting a clear majority in favor of the inclusion of abortion in the Constitution.

The LR president of the Hauts-de-France region Xavier Bertrand also urged his political family not to “fight the wrong fight”, in an article published in Elle magazine.

The question is above all whether the text will be modified, which would force the Assembly to take it up again and postpone the reform timetable.

“There is no opposition to constitutionalization, provided that it is done properly,” summarizes rapporteur Agnès Canayer, appointed by the LR group.

The latter questions the notion of “guaranteed freedom”.

An amendment to delete the word "guarantee", in favor of a simple "freedom", is thus defended by part of the right and the centrists.

This wording had already been approved by the Senate in February 2023.

“The only objective: to make the text fail,” protested the ecologist Mélanie Vogel, determined like the entire left to obtain adoption without modification.

Around thirty LR senators are also carrying another amendment to include in the Constitution the conscience clause of doctors, not required to perform abortion if they do not wish to do so.

Will they manage to bring together a majority of senators?

“I have doubts,” admits an LR elected official well aware of the balance of power.

Enough to reignite the suspense.

With AFP

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