MEPs vote for extending the legal period for abortion to 14 weeks

The National Assembly again approved, Tuesday, November 30, the extension of the legal deadline for performing a voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) to 14 weeks of pregnancy instead of 12. The bill “aimed at strengthening the right to abortion”, examined in second reading, was adopted at the end of the evening by 79 votes against 36 and 8 abstentions, after often heated debates. The text was adopted in October 2020 in the Assembly before being rejected in the Senate, and the rest of its legislative journey and therefore its final adoption under the current legislature remain uncertain.

The government did not comment on the proposed law, issuing only a “wisdom advice” on all of its provisions, without a firm commitment to have it examined again in the Senate. The Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, a doctor by training, however, said he was personally in favor of extending the legal deadline.

The deputies also abolished the 48-hour period between the psycho-social interview and the collection of consent to an abortion and extended the competence of midwives, already authorized to perform medical abortions, to surgical abortions.

Opponents of the text nevertheless managed to score a point by passing LR amendments emptying article 2 of the bill of its substance. This article resulted in the elimination of the conscience clause for physicians specific to abortion while maintaining their general conscience clause for any medical act to which they are opposed.