Abortion is about to be included in the Constitution but still remains largely taboo. Franceinfo gives a voice to women who have had abortions and who testify to the difficulty of talking about it almost 50 years after the adoption of the Veil law.
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Debates on the bill which must include voluntary termination of pregnancy as a “guaranteed freedom” in the Constitution begin Wednesday 24 January to the Assembly. The vote will take place on Tuesday January 30. Fifty years after the Veil law, this daily act is still a taboo.
Those who have used it find it still difficult to talk about it. And this is still the case more than a year later, confides Barbara. Her decision to abort at age 25 was clear and firm. Young couple, young age, young career… Becoming a mother was not the time. It’s difficult to talk about it and take responsibility for this business manager, crushed by the guilty words of certain caregivers. It started from the first appointment with the sonographer. “When she gives me the ultrasound, suddenly she freezes, and she tells me that I’m seven weeks pregnantsays Barbara. Shock ! I cry and she tells me that we will have to listen to the heart. At the time, I wasn’t very informed, but it seemed to me that it wasn’t that useful. She tells me : “Well, in case you want to continue your pregnancy, the baby is in good health.” I come out of there, I’m stunned. I just feel like I killed someone.”
Barbara doesn’t dare talk about it “shame”, she says, to her mother, to whom she is nevertheless close. Traumatized by the expulsion of the embryo and the intense pain, she presented herself to the emergency room of Cochin hospital four days later. “I arrive at reception. Of course, I am in tears, experiencing physical and psychological pain. And she said to me: ‘Well yes, it hurts to have an abortion.’ and she adds ‘in any case, it’s a seven to eight hour wait. So actually, go home’. But, in fact, we are in such a vulnerable state that we don’t say anything.”
Fight against this invisibility
Today, Barbara is considering therapy to remove this feeling of having done something wrong. But talking about abortion remains difficult even when it is not a trauma as in most cases according to Delphine Giraud, vice-president of the national association of orthogenic midwives. She has been supporting women for ten years : “We talk a lot about the distress around abortion and these women who are unwell after having had an abortion. I tell you on a daily basis, obviously it is not pleasant to be confronted with an unwanted pregnancy, but in any case, women who have chosen to have an abortion, they are better after having done it because it is their choice and they have solved a problem. But it is true that it remains something taboo, at least in those around me.”
As a reminder, psychological monitoring is compulsory for minors and necessarily offered for adults. In 2022, there were 234 300 voluntary terminations of pregnancies, a number that is increasing. This affects one in three pregnancies but there is still a code of silence. Some try to fight against this invisibility by continuing to spread this word in the theater for example.
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The room Interruption currently at the Antoine theater in Paris recounts the abortion experiences of around twenty women. Camille, Andréa and Anne are all under 30 years. They have seen the play and when we ask them if in the event of an abortion, they would talk about it, they confirm the discomfort : “It’s in the unconscious. There is the fear of judgment. It’s a subject where we grope around”says one of them. “Well, personally, in my family, I would talk about it easily, but not outside”replies another while for the third : “In my family I wouldn’t talk about it, I would be ashamed. I have never talked about sexuality, it’s taboo.”
Power relations around abortion
The author of the book that inspired the play, Sandra Vizzavona, started from her own story. Two abortions, the first at 16 year is traumatic and the second, ten years later, a non-event, she says. As intimate as it may be, according to this Parisian lawyer, there are still many power relationships that arise around abortion. “It’s as if there was some sort of unspoken rule : ‘You have the right to do it, but be discreet’deplores Sandra Vizzavona. I explain it by several reasons. The first is that a woman who aborts is a woman who has had sex only for pleasure. When we talk about abortion, we are immediately talking about liberated sexuality and I think that still poses a problem in mentalities. Abortion is also a refusal of motherhood and that also poses a problem.”
“I think that women are very aware of the fragility of this right. If they explain that they got pregnant by mistake because they forgot their pill, well they are always afraid of strengthening the voice of those opposed to it. ‘abortion.”
Sandra Vizzavona, lawyer and author of “Interruption”at franceinfo
And the fact that in the bill to include abortion in the Constitution, it is written as a “guaranteed freedom” and not a fundamental “right” is part of these fears.