The Senate voted on Wednesday in favor of the inclusion in the Constitution of the “freedom” to resort to abortion, in terms different from those of the Assembly.
After a narrow vote (166 votes for, 152 votes against), the Senate adopted this 1is February a proposal to revise the Constitution on the subject of abortion.
But not the constitutional bill tabled by LFI deputies which had been voted on in the Assembly in November: it is a version rewritten by an amendment by Senator LR Philippe Bas who received a favorable opinion from the senators. There is no question of “right” but of “freedom” to resort to abortion.
The Assembly had voted in favor of the inclusion in the Constitution of this sentence: “The law guarantees the effectiveness and equal access to the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy”.
A “poorly written” text in the eyes of Philippe Bas, whose party, LR, has the majority in the Senate. In committee, the text had been rewritten to become: “The law determines the conditions under which a woman’s freedom to terminate her pregnancy is exercised”.