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The text deposited in extremis by the majority was voted Tuesday night without amendments. Tense debate
Tensions were palpable on Tuesday in the Justice Committee of the House, where the delicate debate was going on on decriminalization, whether or not it was broader, of abortion. And for good reason. The deposit, last Tuesday, by four MPs of the majority (the MR David Clarinval, the Open VLD Carina Van Cauter, the N-VA Valérie Van Peel and the CD & V Els Van Hoof), of a proposal of law to leave the termination of pregnancy (IVG) of the Penal Code, cut the grbad under the feet of the secular opposition.
PS, Challenge, Ecolo-Groen, SP.A and PTB had just agreed on a common text decriminalizing almost completely abortion. This amendment, drafted following the hearing of about twenty experts, removes from the Penal Code the chapter devoted to abortion always considered as "a crime against the order of families and public morality"
Nearly decriminalized
Above all, it lengthens the time allowed by the 1990 Act to practice an abortion from 12 weeks to 18 weeks of pregnancy. The six-day reflection period, imposed on the patient before resorting to abortion, deemed guilty, is reduced to 48 hours, or even nil in case of extreme urgency. And it removes the notion of a woman's state of distress. In case of non-compliance with these new conditions, very broad – clearly: if abortion is practiced beyond 18 weeks – the doctor could risk criminal sanctions. But more women.
On the majority side, the Open VLD had filed a very similar proposal (allowed abortion for up to 18 weeks). And, knowing that the MR, the vote on bioethical issues is left to the free conscience of parliamentarians, an alternative majority existed on paper.
Potentially explosive
But this scenario was potentially explosive for the team of Charles Michel. The decriminalization of abortion is not included in the government agreement. And we know that the CD & V and the N-VA are fiercely opposed to it. We had to find a way out. Hence the compromise that the majority came out, in extremis, of his hat.
He plans to withdraw the abortion of the Penal Code to include it in a specific law. The main conditions of access to abortion provided for by the partial decriminalization law of 1990 are not modified. The maximum legal delay in which an abortion can be practiced remains at 12 weeks of pregnancy, even if the text specifies that it can be prolonged by 6 days (ie the duration of the reflection period, maintained "except urgent medical reason ") in case the woman comes to the consultation in extremis. In practice, one could arrive at almost 13 weeks of gestation.
For late requests for abortion (beyond 12 weeks), women should be directed, as today, to a center in the country. -Low. They are between 500 and 1000 every year.
A "copy-paste"
In case of non-compliance with this device, the penal sanctions remain exactly the same as in the 1990 law, both for women and for doctors. On this point, the new law is a "copy-paste" of the 1990 law. If the abortion out of the Penal Code, it is not decriminalized.
The opposition cries out luring. It also denounces a bargain that offers opponents of abortion (hear the N-VA and the CD & V) a symbolic recognition of status to the fetus in case of miscarriage. During intramajoritic bargaining, it was necessary to give them pledges. An agreement was reached on a draft law allowing parents who wish to declare a child born lifeless after a pregnancy of 140 to 179 days. In the government agreement, the Michel team committed itself to succeed in this matter.
Grant-giving
For the defenders of the right to the abortion, the inscription of a fetus in a register of marital status may encroach on abortion. There are precedents. Hungary has recognized the embryo's status as a person in its 2012 constitution: since then, women can hardly have an abortion even if the law allows them to do so.
In its initial bill on infants born without life, the CD & V pleaded for a very early recognition of the fetus born lifeless: from 85 days, which corresponds to 12 weeks of pregnancy. A lowering which would have annihilated the possibilities of lengthening the delay to carry out an abortion in legality. He had to back down. The draft bill sets a minimum of 140 days, or 20 weeks of pregnancy. But there will be no alternative majority on abortion. Give and take.
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