Miscarriages: couples will be better accompanied

Europe 1 with AFP 16:44 p.m., June 29, 2023

Parliament definitively adopted Thursday, by a final vote of the Senate, a bill that should make it possible to better care for women after a miscarriage, with psychological support and sick leave without a waiting day. Deputies and senators had easily found an agreement in the joint committee on this consensual text initiated by MoDem MP Sandrine Josso, a member of the presidential majority. The Senate voted unanimously on the compromise text obtained. The National Assembly did the same on 15 June.

Set up in September 2024

The text sets up from September 2024, under the aegis of each Regional Health Agency (ARS), a specific pathway involving doctors, midwives and psychologists in the management of miscarriages, so that women and their partners are informed and guided in a systematic way. The ARS will have the choice of the name of the course, even if the expression "spontaneous termination of pregnancy" was favored by the rapporteur of the text in the Senate, Martin Lévrier (RDPI majority Renaissance) because considered "more just medically and less stigmatizing" than the term "miscarriage".

Midwives will be able to refer their patient to a psychologist under agreement, as part of the "MonParcoursPsy" system, and in the event of miscarriage, their partner. However, the latter mechanism is considered "defective" by most speakers. The text also introduces paid sick leave without a waiting day for a woman who has suffered a miscarriage, unlike a classic sick leave. This provision has been extended to self-employed and self-employed women in agriculture.

>> READ ALSO – "Stop trivializing miscarriage": towards better psychological support for women?

200,000 miscarriages every year in France

"It was a campaign promise of the President of the Republic," recalled Health Minister François Braun, adding that the measure will be effective "as soon as possible and no later than January 1 next year." Employees will also be protected against dismissal in the event of "late miscarriage", i.e. between the 14th and 21st week of amenorrhoea inclusive (less than 1% of pregnancies). The ecologist Mélanie Vogel deplored that the text does not introduce a "special leave for the couple facing a spontaneous termination of pregnancy, based on the freedom to take it or not to take it".

Every year in France, about 200,000 miscarriages are detected, according to Sandrine Josso's report. "If adopting in Parliament a device in favor of psychological support for women is a first step, the real step will be to make it applicable and effective," said Claude Malhuret, president of the group Les Indépendants.