INTERVIEW – While the government has announced its intention to extend assisted reproduction to all women, associations are calling for action to be taken quickly.
France is preparing to join the list of countries which open MAP (medically assisted procreation) to all women, single or in a couple. The Secretary of State in charge of equality between women and men, Marlène Schiappa, announced this Tuesday and made it a question of “social justice”.
This summer, the Secretary of State had raised the idea of making the PMA pass for all within the framework of the bioethics law, the revision of which is scheduled for 2018. She said she wanted a debate “as short as possible” for avoid “recreating society”.
This Thursday, the president of CCNE (National Consultative Ethics Committee) specified that the bioethics law would be revised in the last quarter of 2018 for a vote in early 2019. In a column published in The world, a group of associations demand an acceleration of the calendar and a vote in Parliament before the revision of the bioethics law. Jean-Marie Bonnemayre, president of the National Council of lay family associations, co-signer of the platform, discusses the reasons for this request.
What do you fear, with a review of the text on assisted reproduction within the framework of the bioethics law?
Jean-Marie Bonnemayre: We fear a typical scenario Demonstration for all. As a secular family organization, we experienced very badly the intrusion in 2012 of opponents of marriage for all in the debates organized by the UNAF (National Union of Family Associations) and during the speeches of Dominique Bertinotti [alors ministre déléguée à la Famille, ndlr]. The Catholic community, essentially, was mobilized from the start to shout about all its interventions, whistling, shouting …
At the time, we alerted the Minister to the need to act quickly because they were getting organized at top speed. In September 2012, the opposition machine was already launched and in November, the bishops launched their call to demonstrate. We know that it takes time for a new minister to settle down, to get into his files … Informed of this precedent, we think that the government should act as quickly as possible to avoid the blockages that we have experienced with marriage for everyone.
Isn’t that depriving the opposition of its right of expression?
Jean-Marie Bonnemayre: The opposition has every right to express its opinion. But there are some realities that cannot be overlooked. CCNE experts gave an overall favorable opinion to opening assisted reproduction to all women and the latest polls confirm that the majority of society is in favor of this opening (at around 60%). It is a citizen debate that already exists, in which opponents have their place, even if they are in the minority.
Speeding up the schedule does not prevent them from expressing themselves. But this limits the harmful power of the hard core, of diehards – Catholics for the most part but also evangelists – who oppose all forms of bioethical developments (Veil law on abortion, sexuality courses in colleges, etc.). We want the matter to be examined as quickly as possible by Parliament: this is not a non-democratic process.
Do you think the opposition could question the PMA law?
Jean-Marie Bonnemayre: I think there will be a mobilization, but that it will not be such as to overturn the law. Since marriage for all, public opinion has changed and the political spectrum is different. In 2012, the right was almost unanimously against opening marriage to same-sex couples. Today, former members of the right are in government; the political opposition will perhaps be less strong, even if it will be necessary to reckon with movements such as Sens Commun.
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