![[Press Release] IFOP poll: the French and Abortion](https://www.alliancevita.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/SondageIFOP-1080x675.jpg)
by Alliance VITA | October 7, 2020 | Abortion, Press Releases
On October 8th, the French National Assembly will meet to discuss the bill tabled by the minority party EDS (Ecology, Democracy, Solidarity) which would extend the current legal deadline for abortion from 12 to 14 weeks of pregnancy and would also abolish the conscience clause for health professionals.
In view of this event, an IFOP survey was conducted for Alliance VITA to expose what French citizens really expect about abortion.
- the majority of the French (51%) are upset about the fact that 232,200 abortions were performed in 2019 compared to 753,000 live births because abortion is something women had rather not do.
- 92% believe that women experience long-term post-abortion psychological consequences, and 73% think that society should provide more assistance to help preventing abortions.
- 84% are in favor of including detailed information on the different types of assistance for pregnant women and young mothers in the official information leaflet provided for pregnant women when they consult for an abortion.
- And finally, 88% believe the government should start a genuine abortion prevention policy and evaluate the causes, conditions and consequences of this act.
Caroline Roux, Alliance VITA’s Assistant General Delegate declares:
“These polls have been conducted on many occasions over the past 20 years, with the last one carried out in 2016. These latest results from the IFOP poll confirm that French citizens, especially women, are expecting the exact opposite of what the new bill is trying to force-feed us. Nonetheless, any notion of preventing abortion has been totally vetoed by the minority group of MPs who tabled the bill. However, those who are aware that abortion is not without consequences, are calling for real solidarity to help women avoid abortion. It is also to be noted that there are significantly more women than men who are requesting this solidarity. From our experience of listening to pregnant women facing a difficult or unexpected pregnancy, we have observed that they are frequently reluctant to continue their pregnancy due to pressure from men. For these reasons, and in agreement with the vast majority surveyed, we are calling on the government to conduct an in-depth study on the causes and consequences of abortion in order to implement a genuine abortion prevention policy. It is absolutely irresponsible to make access to abortion easier without any reflection on other options and without reliable data. Starting an abortion prevention policy is long overdue.”
![[Press Release] Alliance VITA Calls for a Genuine Evaluation of Abortion in France](https://www.alliancevita.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/PPL_IVG.jpg)
by Alliance VITA | September 29, 2020 | Press Releases, Abortion
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.
by Alliance VITA | September 25, 2020 | News, Abortion
In 2019, there were more abortions performed in France than ever before (232,000 last year compared to 224,300 in 2018) according to the annual statistics published by the “DREES” (Department of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics).
The annual statistics published on September 24, 2020 show that the abortion rate in France has currently reached 16.1 abortions per thousand women of childbearing age; once again more than double the rate in Germany with 7 per thousand. This upward trend in abortion rates has continued since 1995.
Depending on the region there are very substantial disparities ranging from one to three times the national average. In mainland France, the highest rate was recorded at 22.7 per thousand in the region of Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur. In the overseas departments and territories of Guadeloupe and Guyana, abortion rates are even higher, exceeding 39 per thousand.
To be noted, over the last years: the number of births has continued to fall whereas the number of abortions has continued to rise.
While the 20-29 age group continues to account for the highest abortion rates, the statistics show that women in their thirties have increasingly turned to abortion over the past 10 years. On the contrary, for women under age 20, abortion rates have decreased. For girls aged 15-17, the abortion rate dropped from 10.5 per thousand in 2010 to a rate of 5.7 in 2019, and for 18-19-year-olds, the rate also decreased from 22.2 to 16.7 abortions per thousand.
Accounting for 70% of all abortions in 2019, the number of so-called medical abortions or drug-induced abortions continues to grow. Available by medical prescription, these abortive pills are taken at home before 5 weeks of pregnancy, and in a hospital up until the legal deadline of 7 weeks.
The statistics have demonstrated that 12,000 surgical abortions (vs. drug-induced) were performed at 10-12 weeks of pregnancy.
According to the authors of the report: “The number of surgical abortions performed during the last two weeks prior to the statutory deadline may be partly caused by the difficulty to obtain an abortion, either due to an insufficient number of abortion providers, or lack of knowledge of the health care system by the women concerned.”
These hypothetical comments cannot be validated without a more detailed study, notably including women’s painful reluctancy to end their pregnancy. This situation is even more alarming because for the first time, the statistics included the women’s income. The statistics show that the women with a lower income resort to abortion more frequently than the others.
The report attests that “The statistical differences could not be explained by the women’s age or marital status, since for a given age and marital status, women with the lowest standard of living are 40% more likely to have abortions when compared with women with an average standard of living.”
In a nutshell, abortion is a distinctive marker of social inequality that should challenge public authorities. Year after year, these statistics are continually published, while neglecting to analyze the causes and consequences of abortion. In 2016, an IFOP poll reported that 89% of French citizens felt that following an abortion, women suffered negative psychological and emotional side effects. The poll also found that 72% of those surveyed, thought that society should provide women with more help, in order to avoid having recourse to abortion.
Just following the release of this report, a new bill is scheduled to be examined during the October 8th session of Parliament, under the “Ecologie Démocratie Solidarité” party’s agenda. Although unlikely to be adopted, it nonetheless helps abortion activists gain ground in advancing their cause of unlimited abortion.
Alliance VITA calls for a genuine abortion prevention policy and for an epidemiological study to be conducted to analyze the causes, conditions and consequences of abortion over the past 20 years.
by Alliance VITA | September 25, 2020 | News, Coronavirus, Surrogacy
Since the beginning of the global Covid-19 pandemic, hundreds of surrogate newborns have been “stranded”, pending the reopening of international borders between China, Russia and Ukraine. The babies have either been placed in orphanages or in centers run by “nannies” since the Chinese customers who ordered the babies, had to return home before the borders were closed and their visas have been cancelled.
According to Dmitriy Sitzko, the Chinese Marketing Director at the Vera Surrogacy Center in St. Petersburg. “When the police finds several “undocumented” Chinese babies being housed with a stranger, it looks like an organ trafficking ring.
This boom in the surrogacy business began when the one-child law was abolished in China. Sometimes couples could benefit from this reform, for example when they were too old to have a second child. So, they circumvented the Chinese ban on surrogacy by placing orders through agencies based in Russia, Ukraine and Laos. The Cambodian government has already banned surrogacy due to this phenomenon, which exploits the women’s bodies, especially those living in precarity.
Already last May, France TV Info revealed a similar situation in Ukraine, a major hub for supplying surrogate babies for customers all over the world. Although some foreign clients had been able to obtain visas from their home countries, those from countries which ban surrogacy could not. Therefore, hotel rooms had to be converted into nurseries for over 100 babies.
The global pandemic highlights the dramatic consequences of marketing human reproduction and the urgent need to establish international agreements on banning surrogacy.
Despite the fact that it is totally illegal in France, and described by the government in the debates on the bioethics bill as a “red line” not to be crossed, surrogacy businesses keep attempting to force their way into the country. Following the trade fare called “Désir d’enfant” (Desire for a Child), held in Paris on September 6, where foreign businesses openly proposed their surrogacy services to French citizens, several associations decided to file a legal suit.
by Alliance VITA | September 25, 2020 | News, Family
The 2021 Finance Bill has approved doubling the paternity leave for French fathers from 14 days to a total of 28.
President Emmanuel Macron officially announced the new provision on September 23, while visiting a medical center specialized in the care of mothers and children (“Protection Maternelle et Infantile or PMI”), in the Southern suburbs of Paris Longjumeau, in the department of Essonne.
This follows the recently published report: “The Child’s First 1000 Days”, written by an expert committee and chaired by neuropsychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik.
Dr. Cyrulnik explains: “When the parents take care of their baby, illiteracy practically disappears, there is a surprising decrease in psychopathy, and adolescent suicide rates dropped by 40% in Northern European countries which previously had the highest suicide rates. Therefore, this [parental care] gives an excellent return on investment. The money we spend during [the child’s] first 1000 days, is money that will not be spent on law enforcement; money that will not be spent on educators and psychologists.”
This text to reform paternity leave is specifically based on providing equal opportunities for all children. It is in contradiciton with the pending bioethics legislation of ART with a donor for women without a male partner, which considers paternity as a mere option.
