Alliance VITA denounces the hastily adopted abortion rider, tagged on to the French bioethics bill, and examined in the middle of the night. It would obviate existing abortion laws, by attaching the unverifiable criterion of “psychosocial distress”. If the bill is passed into law, it would allow “medical abortions” to be performed up until full-term pregnancy.
Undisputedly, pregnant women experiencing distress deserve to have society’s full and undivided attention. Nevertheless since “distress” cannot be defined objectively, past history has shown that it has been used to bend the law, with the following outcomes:
- abortion is presented as a foregone conclusion for any unplanned or complicated pregnancy;
- any potential prevention policies for abortion are forsaken, despite its life-threatening nature and the difficult post-abortion consequences experienced by many women.
Providing support services for women concerned by a myriad of delicate issues related to maternity for the past 20 years, Alliance VITA resolutely calls for:
- this deceitful legislative rider to be withdrawn. It has no place in this bill because abortion is not a subject to be treated in an ad hoc manner without any preliminary deliberations.
- an epidemiological study to be conducted to analyze the causes, conditions and consequences of abortions over the past 20 years;
- holding authentic discussions on the causes and consequences of abortion.
