The threat is “Totally contrary to medical ethics”, denounces the Order of Physicians. In an email sent on Wednesday March 13, the National Union of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of France (Syngof) asks 2,000 of its members to join. “Keep ready to stop the practice of abortions”. The pressure of a pregnancy termination strike is thus brandished to make its demands heard by the Ministry of Health.
the #SYNGOF 1st union of obstetrician gynecologists with more than 1600 members calls for abortion strike! Here is the mail sent to their members yesterday. It is unacceptable that d gynecologists and obstetricians blackmail women’s rights and threaten more access to abortion! pic.twitter.com/HFJTjnodjM
– The cheeky (@efFRONTees) March 13, 2019
The union demands that the profession’s guarantee fund, the FAPDS, better cover practitioners convicted of medical errors. About fifteen obstetrician-gynecologists, sanctioned between 2002 and 2012, would be affected by this “lack of protection”. At the time of their sanctions, the fund was capped at heights of 3 to 6 million euros, for convictions that could exceed 10 million. “We have the impression that this fund is a decoy, because it does not work with the first twelve cases”, Explain to World Jean Marty, former president of Syngof and member of its board of directors.
A strongly condemned threat
The provocation, strongly condemned by the Order of Physicians and many associations, is assumed by the union. He declares to want “To scandalize” on a subject “Too technical to interest the press”, and thus hopes to get a meeting with Agnès Buzyn. “I’m sorry to have to wield a threat, but touching a taboo is the only way to be considered when an important issue is not taken into account., continues Jean Marty. Syngof has no problem with abortion, the company does. “
In a press release, the Minister of Health denounces the “Inadmissibility of these threats which go against the unconditional respect of the right to abortion guaranteed in our country”. “Such hostage-taking of women cannot serve as a lever for negotiation and media coverage of this issue that the ministry is following very closely”, she adds.
For Marlène Schiappa, Secretary of State for Equality between Women and Men, “The mere existence of these threats is a shame”. Because “All over the world women’s rights are threatened, sometimes by governments, sometimes by interest groups, NGOs, unions” she declared, while she was giving a speech on abortions from the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Last September, Syngof was already at the heart of a controversy. Its president, Dr Bertrand de Rochambeau, assimilated abortion to a “Homicide”, believing not to be “There to take lives”.
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