French MPs just voted by a large majority to enshrine the right to abortion in the constitution. Although this is only the first step in a long process that is unlikely to succeed, it clearly reveals a consensus of political forces on the subject.
The bill arrived at the National Assembly under what is called a ‘parliamentary niche,’ i.e., the possibility given once a month to an opposition group to have bills of its choice examined. On Thursday, November 24th, the left-wing coalition NUPES presented a text to enshrine the right to abortion in the French constitution.
The Rassemblement National found itself embarrassed by this parliamentary debate. After having communicated her refusal to constitutionalise the right to abortion just a few days earlier, Marine Le Pen, leader of the RN group of deputies, changed her strategy by suggesting the text of the Veil Law, the text that historically decriminalised abortion in French law in 1974, be inserted into the constitution. Le Pen explained that she wanted to do this in order to ‘freeze’ the situation as it stands, and to prevent any future evolution in the direction of an extension of the legal time limits—Marine Le Pen had already shown her opposition to the extension of abortion to 14 weeks of pregnancy—or in the direction of an abolition of the conscience clause.
As explained by the Catholic blog Le Salon beige, the proposal defended by the Rassemblement National allowed the articles of the Public Health Code, contained in the Veil Law, to be enshrined in the constitution, guaranteeing respect for life:
The law ensures the primacy of the person, prohibits any attack on the dignity of the person and guarantees respect for the human being from the beginning of life.
But Le Pen’s proposition, in spite of its ‘good’ intentions, remained complicated to understand and seemed to signal a reversal of the RN’s position on a crucial and divisive subject: the constitutionalising of abortion.
The initial text presented by the NUPES was contested by the presidential camp, notably because it wished to constitutionalise both abortion and access to contraception, and because it wished to make access to abortion “unconditional.” It was redrafted and eventually brought before the majority of MPs. The RN, through its own proposal, which was quite close to the last version of the bill, ended up adopting the text with the other MPs.
The final formula stipulates that “the law guarantees the effectiveness of and equal access to the right to voluntary interruption of pregnancy.” Nicolas Bauer, associate researcher at the European Center for Law and Justice, stressed in an interview for Valeurs Actuelles that this wording at least has the merit of safeguarding the conscience clause, and of retaining the current 14-week time frame. The text was approved by 337 out of 577 MEPs, with only 32 votes against.
The choice put forward by Le Pen was not unanimous within her own parliamentary group. Without the usual group discipline, everyone was free to vote as they wished. In fact, the Rassemblement National group was clearly divided on this vote: 38 voted in favour, 23 voted against, and 13 abstained. Marine Le Pen voted in favour, for reasons that remain difficult to justify. By this gesture, she clearly contradicted herself on a subject that touches fundamental values, and on which she had always remained extremely cautious until now. Her Byzantine strategy—to commit herself to an unethical proposal in order to prevent the text from going off track—has ended up trapping her into backing a project she had initially spurned. In terms of image, we can only deplore the fact that she voted for it; an abstention would at least have had the merit of preserving appearances.
Among the Les Républicains MPs, 22 deputies took part in the vote out of 62. Seven voted against, and 2 abstained. Following the vote in the National Assembly, the head of the LR senators Bruno Retailleau expressed his personal opposition to the turn of events: “Let’s not be afraid to think differently from the Left,” he tweeted after the vote, showing courage that was clearly lacking in Marine Le Pen.
The NUPES were only partially successful. The text was voted on, but not in the extreme version the NUPES would have desired. In order for the right to kill a child in the womb becomes part of the French constitution, the identical text must still be adopted by the Senate, where a draft has already been rejected in committee. It must then be submitted to a referendum. This is a long and rocky road, which makes the realisation of this goal of the progressive Left still relatively unlikely.
If the process were to succeed, however, France would be the second country in the world, after Tito’s communist Yugoslavia, to enshrine abortion in its constitution.
French Assembly Votes To Include Abortion in the Constitution
French MPs just voted by a large majority to enshrine the right to abortion in the constitution. Although this is only the first step in a long process that is unlikely to succeed, it clearly reveals a consensus of political forces on the subject.
The bill arrived at the National Assembly under what is called a ‘parliamentary niche,’ i.e., the possibility given once a month to an opposition group to have bills of its choice examined. On Thursday, November 24th, the left-wing coalition NUPES presented a text to enshrine the right to abortion in the French constitution.
The Rassemblement National found itself embarrassed by this parliamentary debate. After having communicated her refusal to constitutionalise the right to abortion just a few days earlier, Marine Le Pen, leader of the RN group of deputies, changed her strategy by suggesting the text of the Veil Law, the text that historically decriminalised abortion in French law in 1974, be inserted into the constitution. Le Pen explained that she wanted to do this in order to ‘freeze’ the situation as it stands, and to prevent any future evolution in the direction of an extension of the legal time limits—Marine Le Pen had already shown her opposition to the extension of abortion to 14 weeks of pregnancy—or in the direction of an abolition of the conscience clause.
As explained by the Catholic blog Le Salon beige, the proposal defended by the Rassemblement National allowed the articles of the Public Health Code, contained in the Veil Law, to be enshrined in the constitution, guaranteeing respect for life:
But Le Pen’s proposition, in spite of its ‘good’ intentions, remained complicated to understand and seemed to signal a reversal of the RN’s position on a crucial and divisive subject: the constitutionalising of abortion.
The initial text presented by the NUPES was contested by the presidential camp, notably because it wished to constitutionalise both abortion and access to contraception, and because it wished to make access to abortion “unconditional.” It was redrafted and eventually brought before the majority of MPs. The RN, through its own proposal, which was quite close to the last version of the bill, ended up adopting the text with the other MPs.
The final formula stipulates that “the law guarantees the effectiveness of and equal access to the right to voluntary interruption of pregnancy.” Nicolas Bauer, associate researcher at the European Center for Law and Justice, stressed in an interview for Valeurs Actuelles that this wording at least has the merit of safeguarding the conscience clause, and of retaining the current 14-week time frame. The text was approved by 337 out of 577 MEPs, with only 32 votes against.
The choice put forward by Le Pen was not unanimous within her own parliamentary group. Without the usual group discipline, everyone was free to vote as they wished. In fact, the Rassemblement National group was clearly divided on this vote: 38 voted in favour, 23 voted against, and 13 abstained. Marine Le Pen voted in favour, for reasons that remain difficult to justify. By this gesture, she clearly contradicted herself on a subject that touches fundamental values, and on which she had always remained extremely cautious until now. Her Byzantine strategy—to commit herself to an unethical proposal in order to prevent the text from going off track—has ended up trapping her into backing a project she had initially spurned. In terms of image, we can only deplore the fact that she voted for it; an abstention would at least have had the merit of preserving appearances.
Among the Les Républicains MPs, 22 deputies took part in the vote out of 62. Seven voted against, and 2 abstained. Following the vote in the National Assembly, the head of the LR senators Bruno Retailleau expressed his personal opposition to the turn of events: “Let’s not be afraid to think differently from the Left,” he tweeted after the vote, showing courage that was clearly lacking in Marine Le Pen.
The NUPES were only partially successful. The text was voted on, but not in the extreme version the NUPES would have desired. In order for the right to kill a child in the womb becomes part of the French constitution, the identical text must still be adopted by the Senate, where a draft has already been rejected in committee. It must then be submitted to a referendum. This is a long and rocky road, which makes the realisation of this goal of the progressive Left still relatively unlikely.
If the process were to succeed, however, France would be the second country in the world, after Tito’s communist Yugoslavia, to enshrine abortion in its constitution.
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