On September 30, the Social Affairs Committee of the French National Assembly, is due to examine a bill tabled by Mrs. Albane Gaillot (draft law # 3292), the purpose of which is to further extend access to abortion.
The bill is to be deliberated during the October 8th session, scheduled under the “Ecologie Démocratie Solidarité” party’s agenda.
Under the pretext that it is increasingly difficult to obtain abortion nowadays, the bill aims to extend the legal deadline from 12 to 14 weeks pregnancy as well as abolish the explicit freedom of conscience clause for healthcare professionals. The recent publication of abortion statistics for the year 2019 shows that the abortion rate is at its highest level in France, i.e. 16.1 abortion per 1000 women aged 15 to 49 years, with 232 200 abortions every year, while the birth rate has been steadily declining since 2014.
This situation is even more alarming because for the first time, the statistics include the women’s income, demonstrating that women with a lower income resort to abortion more frequently than others. Alliance VITA denounces this headlong rush to promote abortion, while ignoring reality, and this is extremely violent for women when they are forced into undergoing an abortion due to their precarious situation or outside pressure.
Caroline Roux, Alliance VITA’s Assistant General Delegate and Listening Services Coordinator speaks out:
“This is definitely an ideological maneuvering to promote rather than prevent abortion. Indeed, throughout the years, pregnant women facing painful dilemmas have contacted us on a regular basis. The immediate urgency is to protect women from all acts of violence, and especially the most vulnerable ones: those who are too often forced to abort, reluctantly, due to pressure from men or from society. Public officials need to realise that abortion is an indicator of social inequality. Legislators must not be influenced by the ideological manipulations carried out by those who advocate unlimited abortion. »
Alliance VITA calls for this bill to be rejected, and for an epidemiological study to be conducted to investigate the causes, conditions and consequences of abortion. The real priority this year is to start an authentic abortion prevention policy, and to provide unprejudiced and more adapted information on the specific subsidies for women facing unexpected pregnancy, and on their rights.
