Including Abortion in the Constitution: Green Light from the Senate Judiciary Committee and Beyond?

The Constitution, written in black and white in the fundamental law of the republic, does not yet guarantee abortion, but this Wednesday, February 14, an important step was taken. The Senate Legislative Committee, which worked on the text proposed by the government, in fact “decided not to oppose the constitutionalization of the freedom to resort to voluntary termination of pregnancy,” pointed out the rapporteur (associated with the Republic of Lithuania) Agnès Canayer. This is an important obstacle that has been overcome on the way to completing the constitutional reform. Because this decision by the Judiciary Committee, influential in the Senate with a right-wing and center majority, assumes a positive vote by all senators when the text returns to the plenary session on February 28.

It’s not over yet. Senator Kanyer did not fail to emphasize that there remains “a certain number of irritants” in the government text that will have to be discussed during the session. Irritants? If senators are generally in favor of including the concept of “freedom” of abortion in the Constitution, they do not want to add the word “guarantees” to it. “Guaranteed freedom” (for abortion) is a formula that appears in the text drawn up by the government and already overwhelmingly approved by the National Assembly.

The prospect of holding the Congress in early March is highly hypothetical.

However, in order to be presented before the deputies and senators gathered in Congress to vote on reform of the Constitution (then a three-fifths majority of parliamentarians would be required), the text must first undergo an identical vote, close to the word, in two rooms. Therein lies the remaining tension: the hypothesis of a pure and simple rejection of the text is fading, but the corresponding vote is not fully received, despite this strong signal sent by the Law Commission.

The signal is all the more important because in recent days Senate President Gérard Larcher, whose voice carries great weight, has repeated his personal hostility to the constitutionalization of abortion. By advocating for a right that will in no way be threatened in France, on the one hand, and for a Constitution that should not become “a catalog of social and public rights”, on the other. This has angered feminists and beyond, recalling regressions in this area in the US and some European countries.

If the text voted for on February 28 is changed (for example, the word “guaranteed” is removed or amendments are added to give freedom of action to doctors, etc.), then the deputies will also have to vote again. Suffice it to say that the executive’s goal of convening the Congress at Versailles around March 5, the date originally set, is far from… guaranteed.

Emmanuel Macron also noted that it is important to carry out reform, even if it takes time. Moreover, the dominant right in the Senate, angry with the presidential camp – between the partial censorship of the Immigration Law by the Constitutional Council and the personnel changes in which figures like Rashida Dati found themselves – will not do him any good. However, Bruno Reteilo, the leader of the LR senators, who is personally hostile to constitutional reform, will leave freedom of voting to his troops.