So far, women wishing to abort in France could do it up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. The text voted Wednesday also plans to extend the practice of instrumental IVG to midwives.
Le Monde with AFP
The National Assembly has definitely voted, Wednesday, February 23, the lengthening of the legal deadline to resort to the voluntary interruption of pregnancy (IVG), twelve to fourteen weeks of pregnancy. The text, on the initiative of the Opposition Deputy Albane Gaillot but supported by the majority, aims to respond to a lack of practitioners and the gradual closure of IVG centers. Members approved it at 135 votes against 47.
The bill generated a strong opposition from a part of the right to the Senate and the National Assembly. In An interview with the magazine it , the candidate the Republicans in the presidential election, Valérie Pécresse, lamented “a leak forward that diverts the look of the real problem: l Access to the center of IVG, the absence of gynecologists and midwives (…) We must guarantee the free choice of women “.
Nothing was acquired for this text and the choice, on the part of the majority, to support it was presented as a rare independence mark of the group the Republic (LRM) vis-à-vis Emmanuel Macron, who has repeatedly expressed his reluctance on the subject. “The atypical course of this bill is a lesson on the functioning of our institutions. It shows that we have to do political labels. When an idea is good, it is neither right nor left” , said Albane Gaillot, who will not represent himself at the next legislative.
According to the MEP Marie-Noëlle Battisttel, 2,000 women would be constrained each year to go abroad to abort because they have exceeded the legal deadlines. It is the “most vulnerable women,” she stressed.
The bill also plans to expand the practice of instrumental IVG to midwives. “More numerous doctors in France, they can already practice the IVG drugs since 2016,” explains M me
no deletion of the “Consciousness Clause “
Initially, the text planned to delete the “specific consciousness clause” allowing doctors to refuse to practice abortion. This evolution was finally abandoned to enable the proposed law to move forward in its parliamentary journey, started in October 2020. The Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, favorable as an individual to the lengthening of the time of the IVG, had made a prerequisite.
Unambiguous positions of the head of state have long torpedo the reform. Marking his opposition in an interview published in July 2021, Mr. Macron still felt on his return from a visit to Pope Francis, this fall, that “additional deadlines are not neutral on the trauma of a woman”. He added, however, “respect [er] the freedom of parliamentarians”.
Christophe Castaner, President of the LRM MPs, finally decided to resume the bill in the account of the “walkers”. And before the government does the last step by also entering it on the agenda of the Senate. A majority member trophy, whose center of political gravity at the National Assembly is deemed to lean to the left, at least on societal issues.