The Manif Pour Tous against the bioethics bill demonstrated before the Senate

Senators voted narrowly at first reading on Tuesday, February 4, the bioethics bill and its flagship measure, the opening of medically assisted procreation (PMA) to all women.

In an almost full hemicycle, the text was voted by 153 votes for, 143 votes against and 45 abstentions. Not surprisingly, the right-wing senatorial majority voted against this text (97 of the 144 LR, 26 of the 51 centrists, 7 of the 13 independents).

From 7:00 p.m., a rally was held in front of the Senate against the adoption of PMA laws, « a child with two parents cannot be conceived without having a father …, » considering that the massive mobilization in the streets of Paris on Sunday January 19, then before the Senate every evening when the text was examined in the hemicycle, clearly showed the power of the opposition to a text which divides society and which only causes dissatisfaction. Some find that the red line is crossed when others are already demanding new transgressions and anti-ethical excesses, « said Ludovine de La Rochère, President of La Manif Pour Tous, who attended most of the Senate debates.

« While the polls indicate that a majority of French people, and a very large majority of young people, wish the withdrawal of the bill, La Manif Pour Tous calls on the President of the Republic and his government to be wise and ask a gesture of appeasement by removing this text. Otherwise, if the majority persists in its extremism to push through, new popular, family and determined mobilizations will take place. As always, they will take place in peace. But the government would be wrong to ignore this social and associative movement on the grounds that it does not specifically cause any disturbance to public order. Contempt is rarely a good policy advisor. The results of the municipal elections could well confirm this, ”continues Ludovine de La Rochère.

On January 19, two days before the examination of the text by the Senate, they were tens of thousands (41,000, according to the police headquarters, 26,000 according to the cabinet Occurrence) from all over France, to have met at the request of the collective « Marchons enfants », made up of 22 associations including the Manif pour tous. They wanted a show of force to try to block the bill, widely approved at first reading by the National Assembly on October 15.
« This law leads to the destruction of the family and the commodification of the embryo, which amounts to delivering the mother and the child to the market, » protested Guillaume de Prémare, ex-president of Manif pour tous.

But before the vote, during the explanations, the speakers from the different political families returned to the major provisions of the text. They took the opportunity to express their regrets or their satisfaction. The opportunity, for the most part, to highlight « the quality of the debates » that occupied them in public session from January 21 to 29. But also to affirm their differences.

Thus, on the extension of the PMA, at the heart of the differences, Laurence Cohen, of the communist, republican, citizen and environmentalist group deeply regretted « the somewhat punitive attitude » of the Senate which chose to limit reimbursement to relevant cases pathological infertility, effectively excluding lesbian couples and single women.

If he plans to open the PMA to all, he back-pedaled on reimbursement for all (adopted by the Assembly at first reading and supported by the government). The senators have indeed decided to condition reimbursement by the social security system to a medically noted infertility problem. In summary: it’s Safely for straight people, this is the currency for lesbian couples and single women. « A reverse » denounced (among others) by Amnesty International France as « discrimination (…) prohibited by international law ».

Jacques Bigot, the leader of the socialists on the text, for his part relied on the opinion of the National Consultative Ethics Committee to support his conclusion. « This law should be a law of confidence in the individual on major medical advances (…) rather than a law of prohibition. » With regret, he considered that the senatorial version of the text « probably does not meet this wish ». Speaking to Health Minister Agnès Buzyn, he defended the option of a favorable vote, « with the hope of seeing you return with better intentions. »

On several aspects, the text adopted in the Senate has indeed been largely revised compared to the version voted in the National Assembly, and compared to the proposals of the special committee of the Senate. Apart from the restriction on reimbursement, the senators have rewritten the new mode of parentage for the children of female couples, favoring the adoption for the « second mother ». They also limited access to origins for people born in an LDC with a third-party donor.

Outside the LDCs, the senators did not vote for the self-preservation of gametes, which offers women the possibility of having their eggs collected and frozen for pregnancy. The Senate also prohibited the creation of chimeric embryos – the integration of human cells into an animal embryo – as well as the genetic modification of embryos for research purposes. On the very sensitive issue of gestation for others (GPA) – which did not appear in the initial text – the senators excluded the transcription to the civil status of birth certificates drawn up abroad which mention two fathers or mentioning as a mother a woman other than the one who gave birth.

After this solemn vote, the text will now go back to second reading in the National Assembly, probably after the municipal elections. From April, two laws like PMA and retirement will occupy the sphere of French politics throughout 2020, considering that society is against these two laws, PMA and retirement.

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