by NexDev | October 5, 2016 | News
On October 4, 2016, the French socialist deputies announced they will introduce a bill on “numerical obstruction” to abortion, to compensate for the government’s failed attempt to forcibly introduce an amendment to the law entitled “Equality and Citizenship” currently being examined in the Senate.
Laurence Rossignol, the French Minister for Families, Children and Women’s Rights tabled this amendment on September 27, but the special committee in charge of the bill declared it inadmissible. Thus the government has failed to change the legislation so far. A different strategy has now been implemented via a parliamentary initiative and the tabling a new bill. This will presumably be a repeat of the terms of the old amendment or a similar version. Bruno Le Roux, President of the Socialist party at the French National Assembly intends to ask the government for an “accelerated procedure”, whereby the text would only be examined once by the Assembly and once by the Senate.
In conjunction with the Socialist party’s “time slot” (time regularly scheduled for each political party to debate their own bills), or if needed using the interval reserved for the government, the overall majority goal remains to vote this draft law as quickly as possible: before the end of the French National Assembly’s civil year, then in the Senate before the end of February, when the Parliament session will close due to presidential elections.
Alliance VITA denounces the intention to create a new offence which is both unacceptable and unenforceable. VITA calls for an unbiased discussion on a genuine political abortion prevention policy, especially for women confronted with unplanned pregnancies. A petition has been launched against the government’s censure and in favor of better information on the benefits and support to which pregnant women are entitled.
by NexDev | September 28, 2016 | Abortion, Press Releases
French Minister for Families, Children and Women’s Rights Laurence Rossignol, has undertaken an arm-wrestling match against web sites offering support and information for maternity, pregnancy and abortion. Alliance VITA’s crisis center SOS Baby (www.sosbebe.org) which was cited by the government, is publishing the IFOP opinion survey results on the French and Abortion.
– For 52% of French citizens (55% of women!) the number of abortions is not « something normal » but rather « a matter of concern ».
– 89% think « that an abortion leaves women with painful psychological marks”.
– 72% estimate that « society should be more involved in helping women to avoid abortion”.
– 35% do not agree with the 2001 law «allowing minor girls to abort, without informing their parents”.
– And finally 84% (compared to 16%) are in favor of including in the “official guide given to pregnant women the details of the benefits and support to which they are entitled”.
The results of this opinion survey are consistent with Alliance VITA’s field experience with women facing difficult pregnancies or those feeling inner pain following an abortion.
They are also in contradiction with the statements on the government’s official site (www.ivg.social-sante.gouv.fr): on a video and in writing, a doctor denies any post-abortion long-term traumatic effects, which for women, is obviously deceitful.
Since the Aubry law, in 2001, the public authorities no longer include in the information guide the benefits and support for pregnant women consulting their doctor for an abortion. For this reason Alliance VITA has been editing, since 2010, a complete version of this guide, which was recently updated. In doing so, Alliance VITA is taking on a public service mission, in place of the government’s social services and without any government financial assistance.
Alliance VITA requests that this outstanding associative work, achieved in our country by those who refuse to consider abortion statistics as a fatality, be recognized and encouraged.
Alliance VITA reserves the right to file a complaint regarding the disturbing provisions and information which deceive women about abortion, for which the current government is responsible.
The large majority of women want a genuine policy to prevent abortion. Therefore, it is irresponsible to hide the truth about this act, which is hardly innocuous since human lives are at stake in every abortion. Most often, women are suffering the consequences of abortion in loneliness. It is time to talk about abortion.
by NexDev | September 28, 2016 | Bioethics
The world’s first baby produced by using the “3-parent IVF” technique was born in April 2016 in utmost secrecy.
His Jordanian parents travelled to Mexico where they were cared for by an American team, led by John Zhang from the New Hope Fertility Center in New York. The doctors went to Mexico where the little boy was born 5 months ago. Why Mexico? In close proximity to the United States, Mexico has no regulation prohibiting this controversial technique. This birth was kept completely secret. Even though the authors mention that the details of the birth will be presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine meeting in Salt Lake City in October.
The aim of using the 3-parent IVF technique was to offer a couple at high risk for transmitting mitochondrial disease, the possibility of giving birth to a child without this gene defect.
Mitochondria are tiny organelles and function as battery-like structures or “power-packs” to provide cells with energy, including the egg-cells. Mitochondria contain DNA, and mitochondrial DNA will be passed on from the mother to her children. Mitochondrial diseases are very rare but very serious.
> Refer to our Infographics: 3-parent IVF – what is it? <
Thus the human embryo is conceived from 3 different people’s DNA: the DNA from the biological father (by his spermatozoid), the DNA from the biological mother (using the nucleus from the mother’s egg cells) and the DNA from the mitochondria of another woman who donated her eggs. Once the donor egg has had its own nucleus removed, the nucleus from the biological mother’s egg is inserted.
The 3-parent IVF technique was legalized in the United Kingdom in 2015, but so far no other country has introduced laws to allow this technique, even if the United States seem to be considering it. In the 1990’s tests were carried out. To try to boost the quality of women’s eggs, cytoplasm containing mitochondrial DNA from “healthy” donor eggs (the cellular material that contains mitochondria) was injected, thus combining two sources of mitochondrial DNA. The procedure led to a few babies being born with DNA from the parents and from the healthy donor, but the children developed genetic disorders, and thus the procedure was banned.
It is highly likely that embryos were sorted to select a male and not a female. Indeed, a female would carry the risk of transmitting to future generations this triple genetic legacy. In the discussions regarding this technique in the United States, the American report suggested limiting the trials to implant mitochondrial cells only to male embryos.
Tugdual Derville, Alliance VITA’s General Delegate remarks:
“Scientists legitimate this breakthrough for therapeutic purposes, as if the end justified the means. In truth, this birth which price can be counted in human lives conceived and rejected in the embryonic stage, constitutes the beginning of an unprecedented violation of human law. All of humanity is concerned. Until today, every human being was born from a man and a woman. The birth of a baby with “3 biological parents” violates this universal principle of the original male-female gender parity for pro-creation. Foolish demands will immediately exploit this breakdown in our anthropology. It is urgent to halt this aberration on a worldwide level, if we don’t want to have future human beings conceived and manipulated as if they were objects.”
Blanche Streb, Study Director for Alliance VITA declares:
“This is a situation of taking multiple hostages. First regarding the information itself. This practice was carried secretly in a laboratory, outside of any regulation or ethical radar. Then it was revealed in great style, putting the newborn child in the spotlight. He is presented « as being in good health » which everyone would hope, but the international community is faced with the fait accompli, the done dea,l and is forced into not questioning this technique since the “result” is a child. The child himself is a hostage, used as a guinea-pig in the technique used for his conception. For his entire life, he will be the ‘full-scale’ test result of 3-parent IVF. There are a number of unanswered questions about his future:, what are the potential consequences on his growth and development, on his health? What kind of psychological effects will result from this « triple filiation » and the conditions of his birth? Finally the couple itself is hostage to this compelling and respectable desire to have a biological child. Facing this desire the sorcerer’s apprentice had only one answer: producing a baby in vitro “not so biological anymore”. A genetically modified baby. This announcement is very serious. It shows that today scientists flout all ethical rules, presumptuously cross the red border line “tinkering” to produce a custom-made human being! We are not talking about health care, nor about healing.”
Alliance VITA has launched a national and international warning to inform the international community about the potential risks related to genetically modifying human embryos: NO GM Babies. Politicians urgently need to realize the ethical issues which are at stake.
by NexDev | September 27, 2016 | Abortion, Press Releases
On September 28, French Minister for Families, Children and Women’s Rights Laurence Rossignol, plans to announce a number of actions which the government will take before the end of the current legislative period, against Internet sites which, in her opinion, are doing «numerical obstruction to abortion”.
For Alliance VITA, the way the government has been dealing with the abortion issue for the past few years, is a sign of increasing frustration.
This is confirmed by:
– The erratic government statements and the latest reforms with no prior debate or study on their impact. For instance, the elimination of the “week’s waiting period for reflection ” before an abortion, whereas even in 2015, for every 4 births there was an abortion performed (or 218,000 abortions for 810,000 births).
– The information has completely deteriorated during the past 15 years. Since it was launched in 2013, the abortion section on the Health Ministry’s website, gives absolutely no information on financial aid or assistance for pregnant women facing an unplanned pregnancy.
Alliance VITA continues to emphasize the urgent need for a genuine prevention policy for abortion, notably by informing about the benefits and support to which pregnant women are entitled.
Caroline Roux, coordinator for the Alliance Vita crisis centers, states:
« A genuine sign of progress would be a prevention policy to reduce social pressure, especially the pressure male partners exert on women, pushing them to abort against their will.”
Alliance VITA requests that the French government stop discriminating against women who want to carry their pregnancy to term.
All medical acts related to abortion are 100% paid for by national health insurance, including all consultations, sonograms, blood tests, and biological testing. Whereas for a pregnant women: only the first 2 sonograms before the end of the 5th month of pregnancy are reimbursed at 70% of their cost, and the other medical costs are only reimbursed at the usual rates for public health insurance. (cf. decree March 8, 2016).
Alliance VITA’s General Delegate, Tugdual Derville states:
« France needs to have a public discussion on abortion policies and abortion prevention: a non-biased, thorough discussion which would take into account the real experience of women. After every abortion, there is a feeling of failure, and oftentimes personal suffering which cannot be taken lightly since it impacts the destiny of several human lives.”
by NexDev | September 23, 2016 | News
Laurence Rossignol, the French Minister for Families, Children and Women’s Rights, stated on September 17 via France Info TV that next Wednesday September 28th, she will announce a number of actions which the government will take before the end of the current legislative period, against web sites which are «using numerical means” to obstruct abortion.
Mrs Rossignol assumes that some web sites, purporting to be informational sites, actually aim to advise young women against abortion. “This deceitful approach must be pointed out; I call this “numerical obstruction to abortion” (…). To express one’s opinion against abortion, this is called freedom of speech but to deceive young women this is a crime” the minister declared on France Info TV.
In 2013 the government launched its own informational site on abortion. A controversy broke out in 2015 on the one-sided nature of such information: in one on-line video on the government’s site, which claims to inform women about abortion, an obstetrician gynecologist insists that abortion has no long-term psychological consequences, mentioning studies without citing references. However according to the March 2013 Opinion Way Survey for Nordic Pharma, 85% of women declare having experienced suffering during their medical abortion, including moral suffering for 82% of women, and physical suffering for 67%. This confirmed a previous Ifop survey in 2010 on women and abortion: 83% of women think that abortion leaves painful psychological marks.
Jurist, Bertrand Mathieu, in an interview by La Croix, voices his concern: “It is somewhat difficult to consider that a piece of information, even if presented in a biased manner, can constitute an obstruction to abortion. It is highly dangerous to control the partial nature of the information put on the Web”. This professor of public law states: “It seems to me that such a step would most likely be judged anti-constitutional. It appears to clearly overstep the control that the State can exercise on freedom of speech. We cannot reserve specific treatment for abortion without triggering wider repercussions. In my opinion, for a web site to be punishable by criminal law, on the specific issue of abortion for example, it would have to explicitly incite to obstruct abortion, by calling for an occupation of abortion clinics.”
Tugdual Derville, General Delegate for Alliance VITA states:
« We don’t know to what point Mrs. Rossignol intends to control the information given to women or men involved in abortion, but such a fantasy of publishing official information is not fooling anyone. Alliance VITA is well aware that women, but also couples, at every age, need to be clearly informed about what abortion really is. Too often, afterwards, we hear: « No one told me… ».
We do not think that these ministerial threats are aimed at Alliance VITA. Rather we have the feeling of someone throwing their hands up in the air, since we know how difficult it is to censure Internet. Yet, we do request for the government to guarantee balanced objective information on its own site, rather than biased one-sided information. Why try to disguise the fact that abortion ends a life and that it cannot be considered as just a routine trivial practice? The large majority of women want to avoid abortion. Must we wait for a change in government to finally see politicians willing to promote other alternatives to abortion? This is the service for which many have long been awaiting.”
Caroline Roux, Coordinator for the Listening Services of SOS Baby agrees:
« These successive controversies are disrespectful of women facing an unplanned pregnancy, whether they are young or mature. Trying to make an abortion « an inalienable right» makes it even more difficult to objectively face the real facts about abortion. There are human lives at stake and these women often find themselves alone when confronted to these existential issues. We expect public authorities to propose prevention policies to help women avoid abortion, which is certainly not a trivial decision. For the past 15 years, the quality of information from public authorities has been deteriorating. The French law on abortion voted in 2001 eliminated the information on the benefits and support for women who wish to go on with an unplanned pregnancy. In too many cases, women are only hastily given technical information on abortion practice. Which means that at the exact moment when they are experiencing inner and outer conflicts, financial aid and assistance to continue a pregnancy are much harder to find.”
Alliance VITA again emphasizes the urgent need for a genuine political abortion prevention policy.. If we do not want abortion to be the only way out for women confronted with an unplanned or difficult pregnancy, we should provide them exhaustive information on the benefits and support to which they are entitled.
