This is a request that came in particular from several organizations representing midwives: access to a voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) drug at home is extended up to nine weeks during the coronavirus crisis in order to limit consultations in a hospital environment while guaranteeing the right to abortion, according to a decree published Wednesday in the Official Journal.
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"In view of the health situation (...), voluntary abortions practiced medically by a doctor or a midwife may be carried out until the end of the seventh week of pregnancy (or nine weeks of amenorrhea, date of the last menstrual period), in compliance with the protocol established by the High Authority for Health published on its website ”, specifies this decree of the Minister of Solidarity and Health.
A quarter of abortions outside the hospital
Medicated abortion, which can be prescribed by a private doctor, a midwife or carried out in hospital, has so far been available up to seven weeks of amenorrhea for home practices and nine weeks in the middle hospital. The High Authority for Health (HAS), seized in emergency by the government, had given the green light Friday to an extension, justifying it by "the need to guarantee the right of women to abortion during the period of Covid epidemic -19 avoiding as much as possible to go to a health facility.
However, she insisted on the need to prevent pain by prescribing paracetamol combined with opium or codeine instead of ibuprofen, and to avoid as far as possible the woman being alone at home. The decree of April 14 also formalizes the possibility for doctors and midwives to prescribe and monitor drug abortions in teleconsultation.
Several associations had recently worried about the difficulties of access to abortion, while the hospital system is overwhelmed by the coronavirus crisis, alarmed that women are exceeding the legal time limit allowed. Each year, some 220,000 abortions take place in France. About a quarter of abortions are performed outside the hospital.
