PARIS (Reuters) – France\u2019s Senate voted on Wednesday in favor of a bill that would allow single women and lesbian couples access to in-vitro fertilization (IVF), the first major social reform of President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bill was passed 160-116 in the Senate, where Macron\u2019s centrist party is outnumbered by right-wing Republicans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bill is part of a broader bioethics law, which in October cleared its first reading in the National Assembly, the lower house where Macron\u2019s party commands a majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The law would unwind some of western Europe\u2019s strictest rules governing medically assisted pregnancies, a campaign promise of Macron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The senators, however, voted down an article approved by the lower house, that would have allowed IVF to be reimbursed by French social security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under existing law in France, IVF is available only to opposite-sex couples, and only for reasons of infertility or the risk of transmission of a disease or medical condition to the child or either parent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Medically assisted reproduction – such as IVF – is widely available to all women in countries such as Britain, Belgium, Spain. But in France, it has fed into a broader debate about the commercialization of healthcare and gay rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat was recognized to heterosexual couples must be recognized for homosexual couples,\u201d said Socialist party senator David Assouline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The legalization of gay marriage in France six years ago sparked massive street protests even though the influence of the Catholic Church was thought to be in decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a sign France has become more socially liberal, polls show a majority of French people back the bioethics reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some opponents of the bioethics bill fear it will pave the way for the legalization of surrogacy – where a surrogate mother is either implanted with a sperm and egg or becomes pregnant using her own egg – whose popularity is soaring globally, particularly among LGBT+ couples who want to become parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last weekend 41,000 people marched peacefully through Paris to oppose the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Conservative party The Republicans Senator Pascale Bories said she regretted that Macron \u201cdid not have the courage to do a referendum on this issue because debates transcend political parties.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau; Writing by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Geert De Clercq and Lisa ShumakerOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.<\/a> PARIS (Reuters) – France\u2019s Senate voted on Wednesday in favor of a bill that would allow single women and lesbian couples access to in-vitro fertilization (IVF), the first major social reform of President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s term. The bill was passed 160-116 in the Senate, where Macron\u2019s centrist party is outnumbered by right-wing Republicans. The bill is part of a broader… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4273,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4272\/revisions\/4273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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