Members of the Social Affairs Committee voted for the amendment removing the seven-day cooling-off period imposed on women who wish to have an abortion. But the conscience clause is maintained.
Forty years after the Veil law, the right to abortion could be relaxed. On the night of Wednesday to Thursday, the deputies voted to abolish the reflection period, but not that of the conscience clause. These amendments tabled by the delegation for women’s rights to the National Assembly aim to improve access to voluntary termination of pregnancy.
Cooling-off period removed
Until now, women who wanted to have an abortion had to respect a 7-day cooling-off period between the first and the second consultation. A delay deemed “infantilizing and stigmatizing” by Catherine Coutelle, PS MP and president of the delegation for women’s rights in the Assembly.
This delay is also involved in the lengthening of the course to access abortion. Despite the possibility of reducing this period to 48 hours in an emergency, some women still struggle to get an appointment. They then risk exceeding the legal deadline of 12 weeks to perform a voluntary termination of pregnancy.
Despite the unfavorable opinion of the Minister of Health, who recommended a reduction of the deadline, the deputies adopted on Wednesday an amendment removing this period of reflection.
The conscience clause persists
The delegation for women’s rights also proposed to remove the conscience clause for doctors. She denounced “a redundancy”. Indeed, the health code gives “the right to doctors to refuse treatment for professional or personal reasons”. However, for the delegation, “the compromise” of Simone Veil to the doctors in 1975, “helps to make abortion a separate medical act and helps to limit access to a fundamental right which, henceforth, should not know any. hindrance to become fully effective. “
But faced with the reluctance of the Minister of Health during the examination in the Committee on Social Affairs, Catherine Coutelle finally withdrew her amendment. Marisol Touraine felt that it was not necessary “to rekindle an eminently symbolic debate in a context of tensions on a certain number of social issues. “
However, the removal of the conscience clause is not buried. It will be debated again at the end of March in the Assembly during the final examination of the health bill.
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