In MR, it’s not just the mayor of Wezembeek-Oppem Frédéric Petit who opposes abortion and endorses the Supreme Court’s ruling abolishing the right of American women to have an abortion, even calling it “masterful” before formally apologize for expressing a “personal opinion”. In Koekelberg, the municipal councilor (also MR) Marie Courtoy refused to vote for the motion urgently proposed by the municipal councilor Ornela Prifti (PS) and voted by all the municipal councilors with two exceptions: one vote against and therefore abstention.
The scene took place Monday evening, during the municipal council. The motion was to “put in place a constitutional rampart for the right to have abortions and protect the fundamental freedom of women to dispose of their bodies”. The urgency was motivated by the fact that “The reversal of the right to abortion by the Supreme Court of the United States, this June 24, can lead in terms of strengthening for the anti-abortion and conservative movements around the world and more particularly within our country. of them, political leaders, expressed themselves this weekend on the support to be given to this judgment”. Otherwise, “even if in Belgium, this right has been enshrined for more than 30 years, our achievements unfortunately remain extremely fragile and it is urgent to protect ourselves as well as possible from such frontal attacks which would amount to denying women their autonomy of choice and the fundamental freedom of women to dispose of their bodies”.
“I am totally against abortion in general”
The objective of the majority here was to bring this guarantee before the federal government and parliament. The motion asks, among other things, to “to protect the life, health and fundamental freedom of women to dispose of their bodies by setting up a constitutional bulwark to guarantee the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy; to bring together a series of experts and specialists in the Constitution to identify how to anchor this fundamental freedom, to carry out reflections so that abortion is approached in a context of public health, contraception, sex education, with the aim of achieving a full and whole condition of women; to promote measures encouraging the training of doctors practicing abortion, to make the country’s universities aware of promoting this training for future front-line actors and to deepen the systematic information of the population, in particular young people, on the right to contraception and abortion and to plead that at European level, the right of women to control their bodies be recognized as a necessary fundamental right a country’s accession to the European Union”.
Marie Courtoy has never hidden her firm opposition to abortion. “I believe that every child is a human being from the moment of conception”she explains to our colleagues from the DH. “Indeed, I am completely against abortion in general. It is a personal and scientific conviction that I assume without any problem. Everyone has the right to life. I understand and validate the position of the Supreme Court of the United States. It just overturns a right”continues the one who obviously recognizes “women’s rights. I am in favor of support measures. We must help all people in distress, but other than through abortion.”
During the introduction of this urgent motion, the MR asked for a suspension of the session. “It’s logical, this motion was not on the agenda. My political group does not particularly have the same ideas. But I received no pressure from my group.” The liberal finally believes that this kind of debate has no place in a municipal council.