Abortion: a forum to “strengthen the right to abortion”

Deputies, midwives, gynecologists, associations … In total, they are 160 to have signed the forum calling on the government to strengthen the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion), published on November 27 in the JDD.

IVG: “Women still face significant obstacles”

While one in three women abort at least once in her life, the text points to the fact that “women wishing to terminate a pregnancy still face significant obstacles”:“Material difficulties, linked to the still short deadlines to access an abortion (twelve weeks of pregnancy) and the lack of professionals and structures performing abortion. Difficulties linked to the taboo that still reigns, as evidenced by the attacks against women who publicly claim to have had an abortion.”

“Convinced of the need to facilitate women’s access to abortion”And recalling their“commitment to the fundamental right of women to dispose of their bodies”, The signatories urge the government to definitively adopt the bill aimed at strengthening the right to abortion.

IVG: extend the legal deadline and remove the double conscience clause

Supported by MP Albane Gaillot since August 25, 2020, this bill aims to extend the legal period of access to abortion from 12 to 14 weeks of pregnancy as well as remove the double conscience clause for doctors (right for a doctor to refuse to perform an abortion), specific to abortion. And because “strengthening the right to abortion requires a comprehensive approach”, This text provides“to operate several [autres] levers”, Such as allowing midwives to perform instrumental abortions, forcing health professionals who refuse to perform an abortion to refer the patient to a structure or a professional performing abortion, or even removing the reflection period that follows psychosocial interview, “which slows down the course of abortion and continues to infantilize women”.

IVG: for the CNGOF, it is better to accelerate its treatment

The bill is currently being studied by the National Assembly, after being rejected by Parliament at first reading. Among the arguments against the extension of the legal deadline for abortion, the National College of French Gynecologists and Obstetricians (CNGOF) invokes in a press release published on November 26 medical reasons : “The surgical abortion procedure between 14 and 16 weeks [semaines d’aménorrhée, NDLR] change in nature. […] At 16 weeks, it is necessary to dilate the cervix further at the risk of creating permanent lesions, which may be responsible for subsequent premature deliveries. The procedures required beyond 14 WA can be a source of complications for women and their difficulty could lead to disaffection among health professionals who perform them today.”As for the medical abortion in this term,“this requires personnel resources which are absolutely not covered by the current nomenclature of this act”.

For the CNGOF, the challenge is rather to accelerate the management of abortion. “Some health establishments, especially in large metropolitan areas, which are already saturated and lacking in resources, cannot make appointments quickly when requested. It seems wiser to us, for women’s health to give health establishments the means to manage abortions as emergencies.”, And thus to propose a 5 days maximum take-over time “from a woman’s request to terminate her pregnancy”.

Proposal for a law on abortion: verdict expected at the end of February

A measure which, according to the organization, “would make it possible to significantly reduce overruns of legal deadlines, the true extent of which no one today knows with certainty”. However, in the bill, the deputies estimate that each year, “3,000 to 5,000 women go abroad to have an abortion, for having exceeded the legal deadlines in France”. The verdict on this text should not be delivered until the end of February 2022, it still has to be voted on by the Senate.