The thousands of anti-abortion people who took part in the “March for Life” this weekend defended in particular the “conscientious objection” of doctors who refuse to perform abortions.
Thousands of anti-abortion people* took part in the “March for Life” this weekend. This year, the demonstration aimed primarily to defend the “conscientious objection” of doctors who refuse to perform abortions. The opposing ideological current wishes to delete that contained in the Veil law, which duplicates that included in the public health code.
“Personal, professional or ethical beliefs”
As with all medical acts, a doctor can refuse to perform an abortion (voluntary termination of pregnancy). He then invokes his “conscience clause”, listed in the code of ethics and integrated into the public health code as follows: “apart from the case of emergency and that where he would fail in his duties of humanity, a doctor has the right to refuse his care for professional or personal reasons. If he withdraws from his mission, he must then inform the patient and transmit to the doctor designated by the latter the information useful for the continuation of care.
A report from CNOM of December 16, 2011 also indicates that the conscience clause “it is, except in an emergency for the doctor, the right to refuse the realization of a medical act however authorized by the law but which he would consider contrary to his own personal convictions, professional or ethical”.
Double conscience clause
Abortion also has, and it is the only medical act in this case, a specific conscience clause, this time inscribed in the Veil law, which legalized abortion in France in 1975. “A doctor is never required to carry out a voluntary termination of pregnancy but he must inform, without delay, the person concerned of his refusal and immediately communicate to him the names of practitioners likely to carry out this intervention according to the procedures provided for”, indicates the legislative text. “This double conscience clause has a strong symbolic value, because it makes abortion a separate medical act, whereas it is a right in its own right”, regrets Véronique Séhier, co-president of family planning.
In mid-September, the president of the National Union of Gynecologists-Obstetricians Bertrand de Rochambeau equated abortion with homicide. “Not all doctors are ready to end a life. If you are in pain with a gesture that you have to do, I think it is better, in conscience, to entrust this gesture to someone else “, did he declare. Friday, September 28, 2018, the former Minister of Women’s Rights Laurence Rossignol tabled, with several socialist senators, a bill aimed at removing the conscience clause specific to abortion.
In 2017, 216,700 voluntary terminations of pregnancy were performed in France, a figure that has been stable for many years. One in three women will face this ordeal at least once in her lifetime. Young women (20 to 24 years old) remain the most affected, with a rate of 26.7 abortions per 1,000 women throughout France. Next come women between the ages of 25 and 30. Only 6% of minors are involved. The motivations are multiple: contraception problems, bad timing, separation, domestic violence…
Two options are available to women wishing to have an abortion: the medical route (up to 7 weeks of pregnancy) or the instrumental route. Up to the 12th week of pregnancy, this can be done in the hospital, in a planning center or even with a local doctor. All patients must have the right to choose between the two methods, and must receive an answer five days maximum after their request.
*50,000 people according to the organizers, 7,400 according to the police.
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