Some 232,000 abortions were performed in 2019 in France.

While at the hospital, surgeries were canceled due to the health crisis, did this also concern access to abortion?

It seems not and that the medical world has adapted well to continue to consider this act as an emergency.

Fifty years ago, 343 women who had illegally aborted signed a manifesto in favor of abortion.

Today, 93% of French people say they are attached to this right, according to a public Kantar survey conducted for the foundation of women.

Some 232,000 voluntary terminations of pregnancy (abortion) were carried out in 2019 in France.

And a third of women have to terminate a pregnancy at least once in their lifetime.

While at the hospital surgeries were deprogrammed due to the health crisis, this did not seem to concern access to abortion even if the number of calls to the dedicated toll-free number has increased in 2020.

Abortions considered as "an emergency"

The medical world has adapted to ensure that this right is respected.

Last spring, because of the difficulties of access to hospitals, the time allowed for a medical abortion in town was reduced from seven to nine weeks of amenorrhea.

Teleconsultations have multiplied to inform and deliver the necessary drugs.

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This has made it possible to increase by 10% the number of women who can have an abortion at home.

And for two-thirds of the women to be taken care of at the hospital, there was a continuity of care.

"Abortions have been considered by the entire profession, and by the National College of Gynecologists and Obstetricians, as an emergency," explains Professor Israel Nisand, a gynecologist in Strasbourg and representative of the National College of French Gynecologists and Obstetricians.

"There are surgical activities that have been stopped but not abortions. In the place where I work, the birth rate has fallen but the number of abortions has remained the same".

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It is still a little early to have the details of the 2020 figures, but a priori, no change either in the profile or the age of women who have had to terminate pregnancy during this health crisis.

Women aged 20 to 30 remain the most affected.