An amendment tabled on Monday February 26 by two LR senators could spoil the party and relaunch the debates. Explanations.
The bill aimed at including voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) in the Constitution is expected this Wednesday, February 28 in the Senate. Already approved by the National Assembly, the text must now obtain the approval of the upper house of Parliament. However, as reported by HuffPost, Republican senators Bruno Retailleau, firmly opposed to the constitutionalization of abortion, and Philippe Bas tabled a new amendment on Monday which should relaunch the debates. Concretely, this amendment aims to “remove the term ‘guarantee’ added by the government in order to restore the version adopted by the Senate a year ago”. The two senators criticize the terms “guaranteed freedom” for concealing the notion of “right”.
The modification of the text therefore concerns a single word. But not just any one. Indeed, as HuffPost relays, the notion of “guaranteed freedom” would have been preferred to that of “right” when the bill was drafted. A choice analyzed as a compromise which should allow the text to further appeal to Republican senators, who constitute the first group in the Senate, and therefore without whom it seems difficult to bring the project to fruition…
Note that if the amendment is adopted by the senators, the bill will automatically have to go back through the National Assembly. Because to be submitted to Congress, it must have been voted on in the same terms by both houses of Parliament. However, the deputies had already made a compromise by endorsing the terms “guaranteed freedom”, while she preferred the stronger term “right”. Enough to relaunch the debates and, with it, further postpone the inclusion of abortion in the Constitution.