The National Assembly definitively adopted this Wednesday, February 23, the bill on the period of voluntary termination of pregnancy. The main objective is to respond to the lack of practitioners.
The bill on the legal deadline for voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) was definitively adopted via a final vote of the National Assembly by 135 votes for, 47 against and 9 abstentions, after a long parliamentary journey started in October 2020. It is a text “ responsible » which is « shows faithful to the fight for the emancipation of women “, greeted the Minister of Health Olivier Véran.
► To listen and read also: Extension of access to abortion: France lagging behind Europe?
Abortion had been authorized up to 12 weeks of pregnancy since 2001. The delay was previously 10 weeks. It had therefore been 20 years since there had been any lengthening, recalls Laurence Theaultjournalist with the France service.
The objective of this law is to respond to the lack of practitioners and the gradual closing of abortion centres. But the strong argument concerns the number of women who go abroad for abortions because they have exceeded the legal deadlines. They are 2,000 women to do so each year. According to surveys, it is the most vulnerable women who resort to this practice. The very young, the furthest from the healthcare system, or even those who are victims of violence. Needless to say, the health crisis has not made things easier.
Another change, midwives will now be allowed to perform instrumental abortion, that is to say by aspiration of the fetus. Until now, they could only practice the drug method until nine weeks of pregnancy.
The “specific conscience clause” finally maintained
The text initially provided for the deletion of the “specific conscience clause”. A measure introduced by the Veil law in 1975 which allows doctors to refuse to perform an abortion and which defenders of the right to abortion consider archaic. This development was finally scratched in order to allow the bill to advance in its parliamentary course. The Minister of Health Olivier Véran, personally in favor of extending the period of abortion, had made it a prerequisite.
Among gynecologists-obstetricians, the text divides. Professor Israel Nisand thus recalls that at 14 weeks of pregnancy, the fetus measures approximately 12 cm, its head is ossified. Abortion therefore becomes, according to him, more dangerous for the patient. He denounces an unsustainable practice for certain professionals. Others, conversely, such as Dr. Philippe Faucher, believe that professionals master the gesture very well and know how to do it.
Presented by the former deputy La République en Marche Albane Gaillot, who has become an ecologist, the transpartisan text was pushed by the president of the LREM deputies Christophe Castaner. Nothing was acquired and this choice can be perceived as one of the small pebbles sown at the end of the five-year term to give a more progressive orientation to the macronist balance sheet. It could also be presented as a rare mark of the group’s independence vis-à-vis Emmanuel Macron, who has repeatedly expressed his reluctance on the subject, evoking the trauma suffered by women.
The candidate Les Républicains Valérie Pécresse deplored a headlong rush that diverts attention from the real problem: access to abortion centers, the absence of gynecologists and midwives.
And elsewhere in Europe?
On average, the delay for resorting to voluntary termination of pregnancy is 13 weeks in Europe. Access is limited to 10 weeks in Portugal or Croatia, compared to 22 in the Netherlands and up to 24 in the United Kingdom.
In Poland the law is very restrictive. Abortion is only permitted in cases of rape or incest up to 12 weeks. It remains totally illegal in Malta. These limits force some women to leave their country to have an abortion abroad. Each year, nearly 400 French women go to the Netherlands, where the deadlines are more flexible.