“Numerical Obstruction” to abortion: Alliance VITA denounces French government’s irresponsibility

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Alliance VITA is critical of the French government’s relentless haste on the abortion issue, endorsed by the socialist party, obstinately insisting on passing legislation for a new penalty against numerical obstruction, by accusing “false Internet sites” of ostensibly deceiving women.  

The text to be examined by an accelerated procedure on December 1^st claims that some internet sites « prevent surfers from obtaining reliable and unbiased information.” Alliance VITA whose crisis center SOS Baby (www.sosbebe.org) was cited by the government, denounces the government’s attempt to gag and censure those who do not want to trivialize abortion, by targeting sites informing women on abortion alternatives.

According to Alliance VITA, what is really at issue is having access to unbiased information.

Caroline Roux, Coordinator of the listening service crisis center emphasizes:

“For the past 15 years, the quality of information on abortion published by public authorities has truly degraded. Currently when a pregnant woman consults for an abortion, the government no longer informs her of the benefits to which pregnant women are entitled. On its « official information site » the government makes no mention of this whatsoever. Additionally, on this same site, an alleged expert claims that after an abortion there are no long-term psychological side effects. This is in complete contradiction with our experience concerning what some women live through and with the results of the IFOP survey “The French and Abortion” published at the end of September 2016. The High Authority on Healthcare finds it is regrettable to see such a lack of evaluation on this point. An overwhelming majority of women want a genuine prevention policy for abortion. Therefore, it is irresponsible to hide the reality of such an act which is anything but trivial, since in every case the destiny of a human life is at stake. We are often called upon to accompany these women who have been enduring these difficult consequences alone.”

Tugdual Derville, General Delegate:

« Given the current situation, and beyond the scandalous fact of declaring a state of legislative emergency for a subject requiring discernment, time, and a genuine debate, it is completely irresponsible to attack our listening services. For the past 20 years, it has provided a public service that the public authorities deserted. Since French Health Minister Mrs. Rossignol has launched this controversy, our website has been mentioned many times by the media. However no one from her ministry has ever called our listening service to let us know which information was considered “offensive”. We were not interrogated on our field experience on this subject and our request for an appointment with the minister still remains unanswered. There is an urgent need for a serene and unbiased discussion to elaborate a policy focused on preventing abortion, particularly for women facing unexpected pregnancies.”

Alliance VITA has launched a petition against the government censorship, and in favor of promoting better information regarding the social help and financial benefits available for pregnant women.

So far over 30 000 individuals have signed this petition. A new nationwide awareness campaign is soon to be announced by the association. The campaign’s objective is to compensate the glaring lack of governmental clarity on this sensitive subject.