France approved this Wednesday an extension of the deadlines for abortion from 12 to 14 weeks, a measure supported by the government party despite the reluctance of the president, Emmanuel Macron, 46 days before the presidential election.
“At a time when several countries are questioning this fundamental right of women, I am proud that France is reaffirming and expanding it,” Health Minister Olivier Véran tweeted.
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The maximum term was 12 weeks since 2001. The bill, approved this Wednesday by the National Assembly (lower house) by 135 votes in favor and 47 against, seeks to respond to a lack of doctors and the progressive closure of the centers that practice the voluntary interruption of pregnancy.
Under the text, midwives may also perform surgical abortionsafter being able to do so with medication since 2016. The parliamentarians finally maintained the conscience clause for doctors opposed to interrupting a pregnancy.
According to the socialist deputy Marie-Noëlle Battistel, 2,000 women are forced each year to travel abroad in order to have an abortion, since they exceeded the legal deadlines. These “women are the most vulnerable”assured.
The government party, La República en Marcha (LREM), supported the text, despite the reluctance of the centrist Macron, and confirms its leftist approach to social issues after opening assisted reproduction to single women and lesbians. At the end of 2021, while on his way to a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican, The French president assured that a longer term would affect the “trauma of a woman”, but said he respected “the freedom of parliamentarians”, according to the newspaper Le Figaro.
Several deputies stressed that Colombia decriminalized abortion on Monday up to the 24th week of pregnancy, such as the leftist Mathilde Panot who, with a green handkerchief on her forearm, attributed “these advances to the historic mobilization of feminists.”
With 14 weeks, France follows the passes of other countries such as Argentina and Spain. In Europe, where this practice is authorized in almost all nations except Malta, Andorra and the Vatican, the term is in most cases 12 weeks.
AFP
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