Last April, the High Authority for Health (HAS) gave the green light to extend access to voluntary termination of pregnancy from 7 to 9 weeks of amenorrhea (Abortion) medicated at home. A measure that allowed women to continue their rights during the coronavirus epidemic.
This measure was renewed last November, during the second confinement. In addition, all the consultations necessary for Abortion medicated can be made in the form of teleconsultations, and if the woman wishes it and if the practitioner considers it possible, according to the following diagram:
- A teleconsultation of information and delivery of prescriptions.
- A consultation for taking the medication that stops the pregnancy (antiprogesterone): in the event of a teleconsultation, the woman can pick up the medication in the pharmacy, in conjunction with the doctor or midwife. The second drug (prostaglandin) to be taken 36h to 48h after the first.
- A control teleconsultation within 14 to 21 days.
What is the deadline for performing an abortion?
In France, the legal deadline for abortion depends on the chosen method:
- THE’Medicated abortion is possible until the end of the 5th week of pregnancy, i.e. 7 weeks after the start of the last period. If the voluntary termination of pregnancy by medication is carried out in a health establishment, this period may extend to 7 weeks of pregnancy, or 9 weeks after the start of the last menstruation. In this period of health crisis, the deadline has been extended to 9 weeks for home abortions.
- THE’Instrumental abortion (by dilating the cervix and aspirating the contents of the uterus) can be performed until the end of the 12th week of pregnancy, i.e. 14 weeks after the 1st day of the last period.
Abortion by aspiration: the Senate rejects the 14-week deadline
In France, the legal deadline for a medical abortion is much shorter than that for an aspiration abortion, set at 12 weeks of pregnancy.
But, the deputies voted, in October 2020, to extend this period from 12 to 14 weeks (i.e. 16 weeks after the first day of the last period). Why extend the two-week deadline? “The discovery of pregnancy, especially in adolescents, is sometimes late”, had explained the deputy Albane Gaillot, carrier of the bill. Furthermore, “the offer of care is unequally distributed over the territory and some doctors oppose an ethical resistance to taking charge of abortions”.
A recent DREES study shows that the rate of abortion can vary from one to three depending on the region. In addition, the study shows for the first time a clear correlation between standard of living and abortion. The most precarious women use it significantly more than the better-off.
And every year, 2,000 women go abroad to have an abortion. But it is still necessary to have the financial means … This figure, already significant, is uncertain, because other estimates bring it to 4,000.
79 deputies and senators had co-signed a column in the Journal du Dimanche, calling on the government “to take up the bill and put it on the agenda of the Senate, to speed up its adoption”. It is now done, the proposal has been studied in the Senate but rejected by the majority (right and center senators), as explained on the Public Senate website.
With this refusal to extend the legal deadline, is also rejected another measure of this bill which aimed to remove the conscience clause for doctors, specific to abortion. It was a “compromise” allowing doctors who do not wish to perform abortions to refuse.
This refusal to adopt the law was justified by its opponents by the fact that the 12-week level is important to maintain, insofar as it constitutes the moment of transition from the embryo to the fetus. It was clarified by Senator Les Républicains Florence Lassarade that beyond 12 weeks, the medical procedure changed and required to extract the fetus to crush its head, already ossified. It was added that the maneuver surgery could prove to be more perilous. According to the senators in opposition, it would be better to improve access to abortion in France, rather than extend the time.
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- Medicated abortion and surgical abortion: 2 abortion techniques
- In Ile-de-France, more and more abortions are performed in the city
- Contraception and abortion: the French paradox