Second round at the National Assembly.
While parliamentarians are preparing, this Monday, to re-examine the bill (PPL), aiming in particular to extend by two weeks the legal deadline for resorting to a voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion), it will hover above their head for some presidential exit.
Friday, November 26, a few hours before meeting, for the second time, Pope Francis at the Vatican, Emmanuel Macron indeed declared that “on a personal basis”, he remained opposed to this extension.
What he had already stated during the summer in an interview with
ELLE
magazine
,
where he justified
his point by the fact
that abortion would be "more traumatic" after 12 weeks of pregnancy.
One in three women have an abortion at least once in their lifetime
In a forum, published Sunday, November 28 in the JDD, the deputy Albane Gaillot, one of the two rapporteurs of the text, as well as 160 parliamentarians, personalities and organizations, launched an appeal to the government, to the deputies and to the deputies, for s '' commit to the right of women to dispose of their bodies. “One in three women has an abortion at least once in her life. Abortion is not an exception, a mistake or a failure. It is part of the life of women, ”write the signatories. And the latter to drive the point home by specifying that the text of the law, presented today to the National Assembly, collects the approval of “80%” of the population, based on a survey carried out in April 2021.
# 26novembre1974 #SimoneVeil defends his bill aiming to grant the right to #abortion for all #women in #France On
Monday I will defend my #PPLIVG aiming to improve this right ✊💜 # IVG pic.twitter.com/peWgfLLwBi
- Albane Gaillot (@AlbaneGaillot) November 27, 2021
The incredible adventure of this PPL starts on October 8, 2020. The National Assembly then adopts, in a transpartisan manner, the text aimed at strengthening the right to abortion, presented by the deputy Albane Gaillot (who left La République en Marche , to join in 2020 the new parliamentary group Ecology democracy solidarity). A favorable vote against the government's opinion. It contains nine articles aimed at ensuring that any woman wishing to have an abortion can find a suitable solution within an adequate period of time. In addition to the extension of the period, it provides in particular to remove the conscience clause of health professionals, specific to abortion, knowing that a general conscience clause already exists, or to extend the competence of surgical abortion to midwives up to ten weeks pregnant.
Christophe Castaner spoke in favor of extending the deadline
On January 20, 2021, the right-wing majority in the Senate rejects it… which does not prevent the continuation of the parliamentary shuttle.
In the meantime, Christophe Castaner, the boss of the LaREM deputies, takes a stand.
In an interview with our newspaper, published Wednesday, October 6, he declares that in our country,
"
abortion is not threatened in law, but it is in practice"
.
He particularly underlined
“Real territorial and social inequalities”
.
"If we want to guarantee a real and equal right to those which must be protected, it is necessary to lengthen the deadlines"
, he
insists.
Especially since the health crisis has exacerbated the difficulties.
Decisive week for women's rights.
This afternoon begins the examination in session of the law aimed at strengthening the right to abortion.
#IVG I will be in the hemicycle all week to defend this text, which finally passes second reading.
@AN_DroitsFemmes pic.twitter.com/n7ha96AI2Y
- Cécile MUSCHOTTI (@CMUSCHOTTI) November 29, 2021
Thus, according to figures from Family Planning, during the period of the first confinement from mid-March to mid-May, the national toll-free number “Sexuality contraception IVG” saw, compared to the same period in 2019, an increase of 330% calls concerning difficulties in accessing abortion and a 100% increase in requests for assistance or information to abort outside the deadlines abroad.
If certain measures have been implemented, in particular access to abortion in telemedicine and the extension of the period of recourse to medical abortion in town, the rapporteurs, Albane Gaillot and the Socialist deputy, Marie-Noëlle Battistel, underline their insufficient nature to respond to all the difficulties encountered in the field by women wishing to have an abortion… on national territory. In 2019, the number of abortions in France was 232,244, or approximately one in four pregnancies.
Every year, obstacles prevent several thousand women from finding a solution, especially when they exceed the legal deadline of twelve weeks after which it is today impossible to have an abortion in France.
Among these women, some find themselves forced to continue their pregnancy against their will, others to put their health at risk by secretly aborting.
Others finally decide to go to foreign countries where the law allows an abortion beyond these twelve weeks.
The closest are the United Kingdom, Spain or the Netherlands.
About 2,000 women travel abroad to have an abortion
A report by the delegation for women's rights and equal opportunities between men and women mentions data collected during the travels of the rapporteurs: “the [Spanish] health ministry does not have the data. by nationality, but estimates that this would only concern between 80 and 200 French women (…); the association of clinics accredited to the practice of abortion considers that it is possible that around 1,000 French women have an abortion every year in Spain. [… In the Netherlands,] clinics, such as the ministry in charge of health, as well as sexual and reproductive health associations were able to state that in 2018, 810 French women went to the Netherlands. to have recourse to a voluntary termination of pregnancy ”.
To read also IVG: "We must include this right in the constitution"
The recent work of the National Consultative Ethics Committee (CCNE), seized on this issue by the government, estimates that in 2018, between 1,500 and 2,000 women would have gone to the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. or in Spain to have an abortion.
If these figures do not allow us to provide perfectly exact data, they nevertheless constitute an order of magnitude, whatever the sources: around 2,000 women still have to travel abroad to be able to use to an abortion.
In December 2020, the CCNE was also in favor of this extension of the legal deadline, considering that "there is little or no difference in risk for women having an abortion between 12 and 14 weeks of pregnancy" .
