The French Senate has rejected the bill on abortion proposed by Mélanie Vogel, from the environmental party, “aimed at protecting and guaranteeing the fundamental right to voluntary termination of pregnancy and contraception.” The proposal was rejected by 172 votes against 139.
Only Senator Stéphane Ravier dared to denounce abortion as such and not just the proposal to treat it as a fundamental right: “it is not a threatened right when there is a crime of obstruction of two years in prison and a fine of 30,000 euros for those who try to oppose it, and 223,000 young women turned to it in 2021.”
The government took advantage of the debate to position itself. The Minister of Justice confirmed Emmanuel Macron’s announcement: “the Government is in favor of including the right to abortion in the Constitution.” He also stated that “the highest right is the right to dispose of one’s own body” and asked the Senate “to accept moving forward prudently and without ideology.”
As for the Minister for Equality, Isabelle Rome, she listed all the measures taken in recent months, including free access to contraception, the extension of the legal term for abortion and what will be next year’s measure: the morning-after pill free of charge for all women.
However, the foregoing, the pronouncement against the recognition of abortion as a fundamental right of the French Senate, is in contradiction with what was stated both by President Macron and in the Matić report, which claimed this right in the European Parliament last year.
The right to life and the right to abortion are incompatible in any legal system if it intends to maintain coherence. Health and abortion are also incompatible, although policies promoting abortion often mistakenly include it in reproductive health.
The accumulation of evidence about the increased risk of suffering physical and psychological sequelae in women who abort, together with the loss of embryonic and fetal life, represent an attack on health.
