- During confinement, access to voluntary termination of pregnancy was much more difficult for some women, who could not benefit from it.
- And since deconfinement, calls to Family Planning for abortion requests outside the deadline have more than doubled.
- Sarah Durocher, co-chair of Family Planning, fears a rise in requests for late abortions
To freely dispose of one's body. A fundamental right but which today seems upset by the coronavirus health crisis. Among the many consequences of confinement that lasted almost two months, the right of access to voluntary termination of pregnancy (UGI) would be upset today. This is the alert launched by Family Planning, which fears that many women wishing to have an abortion will find themselves out of time to be able to access abortion in France.
"From confinement, we had at Family Planning an increase of more than 50% in calls for questions related to abortion and pregnancy tests," explains Sarah Durocher, co-chair of Family Planning. During this particular period, gaining access to abortion centers was more difficult and some were refused care ”. A few weeks after the deconfinement, what consequences will this situation have for women and their access to abortion? "We fear an increase in abortion requests beyond the deadline, which will be very difficult for the women concerned," said Sarah Durocher, who answered questions from 20 Minutes .
How to explain this risk of an increase in abortion requests beyond the deadline? Was it more difficult to abort during confinement?
Very quickly at the start of confinement, we contacted the Minister of Health Olivier Véran so that he clearly reminded that abortion is an emergency care and that its access should be guaranteed during this period. But we have no answer. And we found that the abortion centers were almost empty, there was a decrease in abortions at that time. The women did not go to abort, for fear of contracting the coronavirus, for fear of being controlled during their displacement and of having to justify themselves, for fear of being judged, made guilty. The confinement and the health crisis of the coronavirus aggravated the difficulties of access to abortion.
If, during confinement, the period for drug abortion was increased from 7 to 9 weeks of amenorrhea, on the other hand, the possibility of temporarily extending the periods for surgical abortion from twelve to fourteen weeks was rejected at Senate, despite the support of a large number of parliamentarians. However, this unprecedented crisis was added to the already existing difficulties concerning access to abortion: there are not enough professionals practicing it today in France, certain territories are poorly equipped, and obtaining an appointment you to abort can sometimes take two to three weeks. And some doctors refuse to practice it. Sometimes for pecuniary reasons: some consider that it is not profitable to mobilize a block for surgical abortion. People know only too little that access to abortion is complicated.
Since deconfinement, is access to abortion easier?
No. As of the deconfinement, our toll-free number * "sexualities, contraception, abortion", 0800 08 11 11, recorded an increase of 120% of the calls for requests for abortions in exceeded time [ie beyond the 12th week of pregnancy or 14 weeks after the start of the last period], more than twice as much as normal. Many women have been unable to abort sooner because of too much precariousness due to confinement, or trapped at home by telecommuting while babysitting their children.
And these calls are only the tip of the iceberg, many women may find themselves in this distress situation, finding themselves today late to abort.
For women who are at the limit of legal deadlines in France, what are the risks and consequences?
Those who have the financial means will go to abort in countries like the Netherlands or the United Kingdom, where the legal period is 24 weeks of pregnancy. But not all women can afford it: to abort abroad, this represents costs of 700 to 3,000 euros. A cost that many women cannot bear. At the risk of undergoing an unwanted pregnancy, of trying to abort alone at the risk of their life, or even of attempting their life. This is unacceptable. Some are precarious, minors, victims of domestic violence, rape, they cannot be abandoned to their distress.
What do you recommend?
At Family Planning, we have been advocating for a long time for an extension of the legal abortion period to 22 weeks of pregnancy, on the model of European countries more progressive than us.
In 2020, 45 years after the Veil law was voted, we unfortunately see that in France, in 2020, not all women have free access to abortion and that they are stigmatized. Their right to abortion is in practice not guaranteed.
* Toll free number "sexualities, contraception, abortion", 0800 08 11 11, Monday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. in mainland France and the Antilles from Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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- Abortion
- Confinement
- Ivg
- Coronavirus
- Health