The deputies adopt a LFI text in committee on the inclusion in the Constitution

Registration of the right to abortion in the Constitution, episode 56. The deputies adopted Wednesday in committee a new text aimed at registering the right to abortion in the Constitution, tabled by the LFI group and which will be examined on November 24 in the hemicycle. Even in the event of a positive vote in session, the inclusion of the right to abortion in the Constitution is currently facing opposition from the Senate, which rejected in October a text similar to that of LFI.

However, any proposal for a constitutional law must be voted on in the same terms by the two assemblies, before being submitted to a referendum. This last step could be avoided if it is a bill, coming from the executive. The authorship of the text, already disputed, could thus become a real issue. Indeed, this green light from the law commission comes a week after that given to another constitutional bill, with the same objective and carried by the presidential Renaissance party. But his examination in session is not scheduled until November 28. “We would be ready to vote” a government text, assured Mathilde Panot, worried that a referendum would give rise to “a campaign where anti-choice movements would be galvanized”.

Contraception and transgender people included

This competition did not prevent the presidential majority from voting in favor of LFI’s proposal, not without some tension when Renaissance wanted to bring the wording closer to that of its own text, before changing its mind. “No one can infringe the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy and contraception”: unlike the text of the Macronist deputies, that of LFI also mentions contraception.

It is a “corollary”, argued their leader Mathilde Panot, because “generally, we attack the rights to contraception when we want to attack abortion”. Mathilde Panot also defended the formulation “no one can harm”, more “inclusive” than that of Renaissance (“No woman can be deprived of the right” to abortion) on the grounds that it does not exclude people transgender.

Rewrites of the text are not excluded in the hemicycle, the rebellious having opened the door to proposals from the MoDem. The LR group recalled its “conditions” to support constitutionalization: “we must be sure that it does not call into question the conditionality of access to abortion”, said MP Aurélien Pradié. MP RN Pascale Bordes also said she feared making the right to abortion “unconditional and absolute”. Arguments aimed at masking hostility from the far right to abortion according to LFI, which hailed “a historic victory” after the vote in committee.