After the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States to revoke the right to abortion, the new leader of the deputies of Renaissance, Aurore Bergé, announced on Saturday a proposal for a constitutional amendment to include “respect for abortion “in our fundamental law. The Prime Minister, followed by several members of the government, immediately supported the proposal “with force”. But “is it useful for the country, at the moment, to go and organize a referendum on this question”, wondered François Bayrou on BFM TV.
A constitutional revision that constitutes rules
A constitutional revision requires the adoption of the same text by the Assembly and the Senate, then it must be approved by referendum. Another option: if the revision was initiated by the executive or taken over by it, the text must also be validated by both chambers, but can be submitted to Parliament meeting in Congress, which must vote on it by a majority of 3/5ths. votes cast.
Bayrou does not understand this proposed revision
“Is it good, is it useful to do that, even though, to my knowledge, no political current calls into question the Veil law” of 1975 which authorized abortion in France, insisted François Bayrou.
For him, our policy has nothing comparable to that of the United States: “It is nevertheless surprising that it is what is happening in the United States (…) which leads to a certain number of effervescent reactions in French political life”, continued the centrist leader, who is “not for us to trace American political life”.
Strong reactions from right to left
The decision was widely condemned in France, from left to right. Emmanuel Macron regretted the “questioning” of women’s freedoms. And the associations for the defense of the right to abortion have worried about a “dangerous signal”. Aurore Bergé pointed to the new RN deputies “fierce opponents of women’s access to abortion”. Their president Marine Le Pen said on Twitter on Saturday that “the RN has never violated the right of women to have abortions”.