Midwives soon authorized to perform instrumental abortion in hospitals

Midwives will be authorized to perform instrumental abortion in health establishments. A decree approving this authorization will be published no later than Thursday, which will make it possible to fight “against access difficulties” abortion in certain territories, the government announced Tuesday, December 12. “Beyond the capacity given to them to perform medical abortions since 2016, this new skill constitutes a strong response to the difficulties of access” greets the Minister of Health Aurélien Rousseau in a press release.

Voted in the March 2022 law aimed at strengthening the right to abortion, this new skill was tested for a little over a year in 26 pilot establishments. “It goes well everywhere I go”and in the field the professionals “are ready”, the Minister responsible for Equality between women and men, Bérangère Couillard, rejoiced to AFP. From now on, midwives will be able, like doctors, to perform these instrumental abortions up to 16 weeks of amenorrhea, or 14 weeks of pregnancy, as voted by parliamentarians. A first draft decree, which reduced this deadline, was criticized at the end of November by midwives’ unions.

“I have been seeing women requesting an abortion for ten years in consultations and often the women asked me ‘Will it be you on the day of the surgery?’ I am very happy to be able to tell them ‘It will be me’ because there is global support”declared Delphine Giraud, midwife coordinator of the “Women’s House” of Pitié-Salpêtrière, a pilot establishment where the Minister responsible for Equality between women and men, Bérangère Couillard, was visiting on Tuesday.