After a long parliamentary shuttle, the text proposing to extend the legal deadline for abortion was definitively adopted on Wednesday.
Thus, it goes to 14 weeks, against 12 today.
Two more weeks, which will change things for women's rights to control their bodies.
It is done !
The bill providing for the extension of the legal period for voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) from 12 to 14 weeks was finally voted in the National Assembly on Wednesday, after a parliamentary shuttle started in October 2020 and heated debate.
A text carried by the ecologist deputy Albane Gaillot, to strengthen the right to abortion in France.
But in practice, what will these two additional weeks change to allow women to end an unwanted pregnancy?
“Concretely, this can change everything,” replies Sarah Durocher, national co-president of Family Planning.
Access to abortion still difficult
Lack of practitioners, the gradual closure of abortion centers on the territory or even medical desertification, "a parliamentary report co-written by the deputy Marie-Noëlle Battistel (PS) already underlined in September 2019 these difficulties of access to abortion and recommended the extension of the deadline to 14 weeks", indicates Sarah Durocher.
Especially since "the restriction of personnel and the abolition of centers practicing abortion during hospital restructuring have aggravated a pre-existing shortage of doctors practicing abortion, especially in certain territories in tension", notes the High Council to the Equality between women and men (HCE).
"Access to abortion is still difficult today, and these difficulties have been accentuated during the pandemic", deplores the co-president of Family Planning, who launched in 2021 "a petition, a new manifesto of 343 personalities, which collected about 50,000 signatures.
The objective, in addition to granting more time to women, is to destigmatize abortion.
During the confinements, which weakened many vulnerable women, we noticed that abortion is still considered today as a separate medical act: we heard little from the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, addressing the issue of abortion. access to what is nonetheless emergency care.
It is a chance to have this text today, carried by the deputy Albane Gaillot, with the support of parliamentarians,
“I was completely distraught”
For the National College of French Gynecologists and Obstetricians (CNGOF), unfavorable to this extension from 12 to 14 weeks, “no woman asks for, or hopes for, a late abortion.
What they are asking for, however, is that they be taken care of quickly when they decide to terminate their pregnancy”.
Improving treatment times “is obviously a point on which it is important to make progress, confirms Sarah Durocher.
On the other hand, it seems to me more important to hear the voice of women before that of doctors who often speak in place of the first concerned”.
A few years ago, Sabrina discovers that she is fifteen weeks pregnant.
In a very precarious situation, the young woman in her twenties can no longer legally abort in France, but does not have the means to travel abroad.
“I was totally helpless, I couldn't tell my parents about it, I was separated from my partner and I had no money”.
A case far from isolated.
"Thus, women who exceed the deadlines, for example due to a lack of access to an effective care pathway, embark on a complicated journey at significant expense by going to countries where the legal deadlines are longer, putting highlight an economic inequality between women”, observes the HCE.
“Avoid going abroad or having an unwanted pregnancy”
At Family Planning, “every day we see women in the field forced to go abroad or suffer an unwanted pregnancy because they have exceeded the legal deadline in France, says Sarah Durocher.
And that is precisely what we want them to avoid”.
These are "the most vulnerable women, the very young, the furthest from the healthcare system, the women who have the least access to health information, those who have no means of transport or even those victims of violence”, explains Marie-Noëlle Battistel, while 2,000 to 5,000 women are forced each year to go abroad to have an abortion because they have exceeded the legal deadlines.
And the legal deadline passes quickly.
Very quickly.
"Between the time of the sometimes late discovery of the pregnancy, the reflection, the decision and the time to access the medical act, in particular if one lives in a medical desert, extending the period from 12 to 14 weeks is far from being anecdotal, insists Sarah Durocher.
For all these reasons, women may need to have an abortion later”.
"An important day for women's rights"
A reality that she sees every day.
“Every day, we see at least one woman for an overdue abortion, notes Sarah Durocher.
In this case, if she wishes, we inform her, and then if she has the will and the possibility, she makes an appointment for an abortion abroad, but it will cost her around 1,500 euros.
Hence an injustice for all those who cannot pay”.
Without the help of her closest friend, who "loaned her all her savings, I would never have been able to go to the Netherlands for an abortion", recalls Sabrina.
But others end up putting their health at risk.
“We have seen women fall down the stairs to stop an unwanted pregnancy, reveals Sarah Durocher.
That's why those two extra weeks can make all the difference.”
This Wednesday thus marks “an important day for women's rights”, rejoiced Albane Gaillot, who carried this text “resulting from cross-partisan work.
If it is adopted, my bill strengthening the right to abortion will mark a historic step forward, ”she added, while the final vote is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
At the end of this vote, “it will be our role to inform women to tell them that the law has changed, that their rights have evolved”, foresees Sarah Durocher, who recalls “the government number on abortion: 0800 08 11 11”.
Further securing the right to abortion
This text, which comes forty-seven years after the Veil law having decriminalized abortion, "is now a victory, but this right to abortion must still be secured", insists the co-president of Family Planning.
For the HCE, “further reforms are therefore essential”.
According to this independent advisory authority placed with the head of government, it is necessary to go further by placing it at the top of the hierarchy of standards: the Constitution.
“Ensuring women's sexual and reproductive rights must be the priority of public authorities.
It is therefore urgent to develop and apply measures that guarantee their access and to enshrine them in the French constitution.
This recognition of the fundamental nature [of these rights] will then make it possible to promote them on a European scale”, assures the HCE.
A proposal “which makes sense, abounds Sarah Durocher.
Inscribing this right in the Constitution would make it a fundamental right, which it would no longer be possible to threaten or question.
It is all the more important today that this right is very weakened and attacked in Europe and in the world.
This Wednesday is a day of victory for women's rights in France, but there is still a lot of work to be done.
Society
Abortion: Parliament must adopt this Wednesday the extension of the period from 12 to 14 weeks
Health
"Containment has aggravated the difficulties of access to abortion", warns Sarah Durocher, co-president of Family Planning
women's health
Womens rights
Society
abortion
Health
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