Alliance VITA denounces the recent governmental gambit aimed at pushing through the highly controversial Bioethics bill in France. Along with “March for the Children”, Alliance VITA calls for action to have the bill withdrawn from the extraordinary parliamentary session.
On June 16th, the French government published a decree convening Parliament to a special session on July 1, 2020, to continue examining various legislative texts, including the Bioethics bill. A recent IFOP survey carried out by “March for the Children” revealed that over 70% of the French prefer to have the bill suspended or withdrawn, and focus primarily on managing the socio-economic emergencies generated by the COVID-19 crisis.
Caroline Roux, Alliance VITA’s Assistant General Delegate asserts:
“By convoking parliament to an extraordinary session to examine the bill, the government is yielding to the ideological pressure of a small minority. Only two days after French President Macron addressed the nation with promises ‘to rebuild an economy that is strong, ecological, sovereign and unified’, the government immediately turns its back on the real needs and expectations of its’ citizens, just to push through a bill on this highly controversial issue. The government cannot act as if nothing had happened. The world before this coronavirus crisis and after cannot be the same. The French rightly seek a comprehensive overhaul of the nation’s priorities to better serve the best interest of all its’ citizens. For the majority of French citizens (62%), the push to re-examine this particular bill in an extraordinary session is perceived as an electoral or diversionary tactic related to the COVID-19 health and socio-economic crisis. The overwhelming majority is more concerned about pressing issues such as employment, purchasing power, environmental protection, etc. Therefore, Alliance VITA is calling for the Bioethics bill discussions to be withdrawn from the upcoming parliamentary discussions. “
