A government bill attempting to enshrine the right to an abortion within the French constitution has been rejected by the country’s Senate.
An attempt by the Neoliberal French government to add the right to an abortion to the French constitution in the wake of the U.S.’s Roe v. Wade ruling has been soundly rejected by the country’s Senate.
It comes after politicians on the right in the country accused Macron’s government of using the issue of abortion to distract from problems surrounding illegal immigration in the country, which many have linked to the rape, torture and murder of a 12-year-old French girl last week.
According to a report by Le Figaro, while left-wing politicians attempted to argue for the constitutional change by arguing that abortion is now under threat in France and Europe in the wake of U.S. Supreme Court ruling, such an argument did not convince a majority of representatives.
Instead, the upper house opted to reject the bill, with 172 voting against the pro-abortion resolution against 139 who voted for its implementation.
“[There is] no reason to import into France a debate linked to American culture,” Agnès Canayer, a Senator for the French Les Républicains party, is reported as saying regarding the bill.
Another representative from the party said that those in the Senate were not “militants”, saying that the bill enshrining the right to abortion into the constitution would “obviously be a bad law” considering abortion is already freely available in France.
Establishment Using Abortion Issue to Distract from ‘Out of Control’ Immigration – Le Penhttps://t.co/xQCV15Fun4
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 1, 2022
While opposition to the practice does exist in France, before the repeal of Roe v. Wade, the issue of abortion had largely faded from the political consciousness in the country, with the right wing in the country instead occupying itself with other issues it currently finds more pressing.
As a result, an attempt by the Macron government to revive the idea that abortion is under threat in the country has largely been met with ridicule from Conservatives and populists in the country, with the President being accused of trying to distract from his failure to address illegal immigration and the cost of living crisis.
“The reality is that [the Macron government] is carrying out a political diversion because it does not want the focus to be on the main concerns of the French people today and their difficulties, which is purchasing power, which is security, which is immigration out of control,” Le Pen said earlier this year regarding the issue.
The French political firebrand went on to say that, while there were people within her own party unhappy with the French abortion regime, it was not something the party was really focused on, and that even if she were put in government, any change to the law on the issue would only come about via a referendum on the subject.
Even then, however, Le Pen said that the party would be far more concerned with running referendums on tightening rules in regard to illegal immigration before even looking at abortion.
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