“There is terrible impunity,” criticizes one of the associations calling for demonstrations on Wednesday in Paris

A few hours before a rally in front of the Ministry of Health in Paris against sexist and sexual violence in the health sector, Sonia Bisch, founder of Stop obstetric and gynecological violence, denounces Wednesday May 29 at the microphone of France Inter “terrible and deleterious impunity for everyone”.

Several feminist organizations, health professionals and medical students are calling for a demonstration at 6 p.m. in front of the Ministry of Health in Paris, after a wave of testimonies published on social networks under the hashtag #MeToohospital. Sonia Bisch believes that such violence not only prevents health professionals from practicing “their work in good conditions” but also have “dramatic consequences on the lives of patients”. “When we are sick or awaiting a diagnosis, we are in a vulnerable position, so we need kindness all the more,” she says.

Faced with the scale of the accusations against health professionals or medical students, the associations are calling for an awareness plan in all health establishments, compulsory training and the removal of pornographic frescoes in hospitals. On this last point, the Ministry of Health ordered the removal of these frescoes in January 2023, but in fact certain establishments still refuse to remove them.

Céline Piques, spokesperson for Dare to Feminism, describes frescoes representing “scenes of gang rape, zoophilia”. These frescoes relay the image according to which “Women are sexual objects that we have the right to violate”, she castigates. Such images being found “in the guard rooms”, Céline Piques wonders how there can be “then an awareness of the seriousness of the subject of sexist and sexual violence”.