In France, 50 years ago to the day, the National Assembly adopted the bill on abortion, the voluntary termination of pregnancy. The project was led by the Minister of Health at the time, Simone Veil. Fifty years later, the number of abortions has never been higher in the country: 240,000 abortions were recorded last year. This upward trend has been observed since the 1990s and has accelerated significantly in the last two years.
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It is still too early to conclude that there is an underlying trend, but the statistics are clear: in Franceover the last 30 years, there has been a IVG for four births. Since 2022, there has been one abortion for every three births.
Fifty years after the Veil law, it must be said that the framework has evolved. The legal period has been extended from 12 to 14 weeks, professionals such as midwives can now perform certain abortions and the locations and methods have diversified. But this only partly explains the recent increase.
Justine Chaput, from the National Institute of Demographic Studies (INED), proposes another hypothesis. “ In a context of socio-economic and political crisis in recent years, there will be a decision to terminate the pregnancy which would be a little more important than before “, she explains.
A change in the relationship to fertility
The context, the uncertainty, the difficulty in planning… So many factors identified by INED which also points to an evolution in the relationship to fertility over the past 50 years. “ The fact of having a stigma that is perhaps a little less important, this would make it possible to consider abortion a little more as a means of fertility control among others, particularly among contraception and not only as a last resort. , but in any case to integrate it among all these means that exist », continues Justine Chaput.
But this accelerated increase in abortions should not hide another reality, INED points out: that of great inequalities in access to abortion depending on the territory.
Also readIVG in the Constitution: “real inequalities in territorial access to care”