In a move that is being called horrific by pro-life campaigners, the French National Assembly today gave the green light to radical new amendments that could effectively legalise abortions, of not only fetuses but also of fully grown babies by allowing abortions on demand, up until birth for “psychosocial distress”.
The move will effectively allow the abortion of fetuses and babies up until the birth of the child for any reason. The assembly also voted in favour of state-funded artificial procreation for lesbian couples and potentially even more disturbing than the potential for any stage abortions, is the move to allow genetically modified embryos and chimeras (animal/human hybrids), in a late-night vote on the revising the country’s bioethics law.
The legislators voted to allow abortion for mothers that suffer “psycho-social distress”, Effectively approving abortion up to birth for any reason.
‘In great danger’
As Pro-life campaigners expressed their horror at the news of the vote, the Roman Catholic Bishop Bernard Ginoux of Montauban expressed his concern for future generations stating that they are “in great danger”.
Alliance Vita, the French pro-life group, also expressed great concern stating that psychosocial distress in an “unverifiable criterion” and as such leaves the door open for women to abort their pregnancies at any time and for any reason.
There are around 220,000 legal abortions that happen every year in France and campaigners fear that the new amendments will increase that number further.
‘Manipulation’
The fact that there were only a small number of votes for the law has also drawn criticism. Out of a total of 577 members in the Assembly only a total of 101 took part in the vote with 60 members voting for and 37 voting against the controversial amendment.
Additional objections were also lodged due to the fact that there was very little time to properly scrutinise the amendments. There were only 25 hours allocated to disgus the amendment, with the artificial procreation portion only having a few horse of scrutiny time due to it being added just a few hours before the vote was held.
Protests
Thousands of people protested last year against the introduction of the artificial procreation for lesbian couples when it was discussed at grassroots consultations.
A modified law will be voted on by a joint committee of the National Assembly and the Senate once the bill has had it’s second reading in the Senate. In the event that a consensus cannot be reached, then the National Assembly will make the final decision.
