The confinement has weakened access to abortion for many women in France, and the Family Planning toll-free number has recorded an increase in calls for abortion requests overdue at the end of this period.
- Access to abortion was weakened during confinement and many women remained helpless
- Abortion centers have observed a significant drop in attendance
- During deconfinement, the Family Planning toll-free number recorded an increase in calls for an abortion overdue
Access to abortion has been considerably weakened during confinement, leaving many women helpless, left to their own devices, forced in some cases to go abroad for abortions where the delays are longer than in France.
Abortion delays
Sarah Durocher, co-chair of the Family planning, share with 20 minutes the consequences of confinement on access to abortion. She mentions a significant drop in attendance at abortion centers: “Ihe women did not go to have an abortion, for fear of contracting the coronavirus, for fear of being checked during their journey and of having to justify themselves, for fear of being judged, made guilty.”
During confinement, the deadline for medical abortion went from 7 to 9 weeks of amenorrhea, but the request to temporarily extend the deadline for surgical abortion to 14 weeks (instead of 12 currently) was rejected by the Senate.
“However, this unprecedented crisis has added to the already existing difficulties concerning access to abortion: there are not enough professionals practicing it today in France, certain territories are poorly equipped, and obtaining an appointment you to have an abortion can sometimes take two to three weeks. And some doctors refuse to practice it.”
Rise in overdue abortion requests
Sarah Durocher explains that the Family Planning toll-free number (0800 08 11 11*) recorded a 120% increase in calls for abortion requests overdue during deconfinement, double than usual. “Many women were unable to have an abortion sooner because they were too precarious due to confinement, or stuck at home working from home while babysitting their children.she describes.
Those with the means were able to travel to the United Kingdom or the Netherlands where the legal deadline is 24 weeks of pregnancy, but not all could afford it “atu risk of having an unwanted pregnancy, of attempting to abort alone at the risk of their lives, or even of attempting to kill themselves. This is unacceptable. Some are precarious, minors, victims of domestic violence, rape, we cannot abandon them to their distress.”
As for several years, Family Planning, pleads “for an extension of the legal abortion period to 22 weeks of pregnancy, on the model of European countries that are more progressive than us.”
Abortion in France
Normally, between 215,000 and 230,000 abortions are performed each year in France. According to a report from the Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics Department (DREES), 234,300 abortions were performed in 2018. This year, it was “3% higher than in 2017 and the rate of recourse amounts to 15.4 abortions per 1,000 women resident in the whole of France, compared to 14.8 the previous year”.
*Toll-free number “sexuality, contraception, abortion”, open Monday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. in mainland France and in the West Indies Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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