The National Assembly will proceed this Tuesday, January 30, to a solemn vote on the draft constitutional law relating to the
“guaranteed freedom”
to resort to voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG).
This vote comes a few days after the Hemicycle approved (99 votes for and 13 votes against) this new formulation, presented as a compromise between the initial proposal of the lower house which had voted at the end of 2022 a text from France insoumise for guarantee
“access to the right to abortion”
, and that of the Senate, which for its part approved last February a version evoking the
“freedom of the woman to end her pregnancy”
.
This request to change the Constitution was originally motivated by the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, in June 2022, to reverse the jurisprudence of Roe vs.
Wade of 1973 which established the legal framework for abortion.
In the explanatory memorandum, the rebellious deputies had in fact claimed to detect a danger for the future of France.
“
In France, as everywhere in Europe, we have observed for several years attempts to reconsider
this fundamental right
,” we could read.
Facing them, the senatorial right had on the contrary affirmed that this right was far from being called into question in the country.
A look back in figures at the reality of abortion in France.
The number of abortions at its highest level in 30 years
There were more than 234,000 abortions in 2022, a record number after two years of decline caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, reports the Directorate of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics ( Drees) in a study published in September 2023. The rate of recourse to abortion thus exceeded the 2019 level - which was at the time the highest since 1990 - with 16.2 abortions per 1000 women aged 15 to 49 years in 2021 compared to 15.7 per 1000 in 2019.
And this increase particularly concerned young women aged 20 to 29.
The recourse rate in fact stood at 26.9‰ among 20-24 year olds (+2.6 points compared to 2021) and reached 28.6‰ among 25-29 year olds (+2.2 points) , reports Drees again.
Methods for terminating pregnancies have also evolved over the past 20 years.
The medicinal method (legal until the ninth week of pregnancy) has become the most used by women.
In 2022, it represented 78% of all abortions compared to 68% in 2019 and 31% in 2000.
A legal deadline of 14 weeks, compared to an average of 12 weeks in the EU
Concerning the legal deadline for resorting to abortion, France changed its legislation in March 2022 by extending it by two weeks (from 12 to 14 weeks).
In doing so, it placed itself in the high average of European Union countries.
More than half of countries have in fact set the legal limit at 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Sweden and the Netherlands offer longer deadlines, respectively 18 weeks and 24 weeks.
And only Poland and Malta still prohibit it, except in cases of rape, incest or when the mother is in danger.
A waiting period of 7 days on average
A 2019 study by the Ministry of Health also showed that the waiting time in France for an IVG [between women's first request for an IVG and the actual performance of the procedure,
Editor's note
] was of seven days.
It can vary between 3 and 11 days depending on the region.
Although there are indeed areas of tension, there is no white zone.