What are the rights and duties with regard to voluntary termination of pregnancy? The details of Marion Jorand, lawyer at the firm Ledoux et Associés, good connoisseur of these questions of health law.
franceinfo: What are the deadlines for performing an abortion?
Marion Jorand: There are two ways to perform an abortion. Either medicated, up to the fifth week of pregnancy in a private practice, and up to the seventh week, in a health establishment. Or a surgical abortion until the 12th week of pregnancy.
Are there any conditions that can extend these deadlines?
It is then a medical termination of pregnancy. Either the continuation of the pregnancy seriously endangers the health of the woman, or there is a high probability that the unborn child will suffer from a condition of particular gravity, recognized as incurable.
Some women, after this time, will have an abortion performed abroad. Do they risk anything vis-à-vis French law?
No nothing. If they respect the rules of the host country, they risk nothing.
Do all these rules apply to minors?
A minor has a choice. Either she decides to ask for parental authorization, and her parents will be present with her, to accompany her in her steps. Either she decides to keep the secret, and in this case, she must be accompanied by an adult of her choice.
There is currently a debate to change the deadlines. What are the issues ?
There is a bill that is being debated in parliament to change the maximum period from 12 to 14 weeks, to prevent women from going abroad, given the slowness of the current deadlines.
What is the process that a woman must follow to benefit from an abortion?
Abortion is not part of the coordinated care pathway, so going through the attending physician is not mandatory. Nevertheless, in the context of a medical abortion, a woman can choose to ask her attending physician to perform it.
Otherwise, before an abortion there are two compulsory medical consultations. During the first, with a doctor or a midwife, the patient expresses her desire for an abortion. The doctor gives him information and gives him a guide. The doctor can tell him that he does not practice abortions but he has the obligation to suggest another practitioner or an establishment that does it.
At the end of this consultation, he gives him a certificate and, then, a second consultation takes place (there is no longer a mandatory reflection period between the two). The patient then expresses in writing her desire to perform an abortion, and at that time, the midwife or the doctor discusses with her the best method that will apply to her. They choose together the method and the place.
Do midwives have a new role?
They can perform medical abortions up to the fifth week of pregnancy, in private practice, and there is an experiment in some pilot establishments to allow midwives trained for this to perform instrumental abortions, to relieve doctors and shorten lead times.
Is abortion always free?
When it is practiced in town, it is subject to 100% reimbursement and in a hospital establishment, there is an exemption from advance payment. All associated examinations are free, analyses, imaging, everything that frames an abortion is covered by Social Security.