If access to abortion remains complicated because of the low resources allocated
to health in general, to women's health in particular and to abortion centersmore specifically, the theoretical conditions are quite favorable in France.There are, however, at least two points to improve: the time limit and the doubleconscience clause. ---- Let's talk a little technical and describe the menstrualcycle of women [1], starting with ovulation. Ovulation is when an ovary releasesan egg. The egg lives twenty-four hours, the sperm a few days and thereforefertilization is possible for three to five days.About fourteen days later, the period corresponds to the evacuation of the liningof the uterus which had prepared for a possible pregnancy. Having your period isthe guarantee of not being pregnant. It sounds easy like that, if you don't haveyour period 14 days after ovulation you're pregnant. Except ... Ovulation is nota remarkable moment, the visible moment of the cycle is the rules.The standard cycle that we talk about everywhere is twenty-eight days. Ovulationfourteen days after menstruation, menstruation fourteen days after ovulation. Ifyou don't have your period twenty-eight days after the previous one, alert.Except ... Some women have twenty-one day cycles, others thirty-five, and that'snot a rarity. Twenty-eight days is an average. To complicate matters, many haveirregular cycles. And to complicate matters further, some women have bleedingeven when pregnant. It's a mess! So few women are immediately worried about alate period.And a delay is already at least fifteen days of pregnancy. Let's say that anotherfifteen days pass before a test, the pregnancy is already more than four weeksold and the legal deadline for an abortion is twelve weeks. Some hesitation, twoobligatory appointments to be made with a week of reflection between the two, adating ultrasound and then the appointment to proceed with the voluntarytermination of pregnancy (abortion), drug or instrumental.Short cycles, long cycles, irregular cyclesThe medical abortion should be performed within the first five weeks. It istherefore not really unusual for women to fail to have an abortion within thetwelve week period. About 5,000 women go abroad to abort each year, compared to200,000 who abort in France. Aborting abroad is a cost that not all women can afford.The deadline for an abortion in the UK is twenty-four weeks, twenty-two in theNetherlands and fourteen in Spain. These are the destination countries for womenfrom France.The current demand and the current vote aim to increase the delay in France up tofourteen weeks of pregnancy. Two more weeks which do not modify at all theconception of what is a child (a desired being) and a fetus (the contents of apregnancy which is not wanted), which do not complicate the act and do notendanger the woman any more [2].But two weeks which would allow many women to have abortions in France and whichsymbolically annoy reactionary doctors who find there something to vituperateagainst women and their rights.The law providing for an extension of the period from twelve to fourteen weeks ofpregnancy will be examined in the Senate in January (if this silent governmentdoes not change its mind). The text was voted on at second reading in theAssembly on November 30. If the Senate votes on it, or if the National Assemblytakes the final decision, the law can therefore be applied quickly.The law provides for a conscience clause for all doctors: "[...]Except in anemergency and in a situation where he fails to fulfill his humanitarian duties, adoctor has the right to refuse his care for professional or personal reasons. Ifhe withdraws from his mission, he must then warn the patient and transmit to thedoctor appointed by him the information useful for the continuation of the care".But since abortion is a seemingly special act, there is a second conscienceclause, specific to abortion. The public health code provides that a "doctor ormidwife is never required to perform voluntary termination of pregnancy" and thatno "midwife, nurse, medical assistant, whatever. 'it is, is not required tocontribute to an interruption of pregnancy'.Where we could rather say: if you don't want to have abortions, you are agastroenterologist and not a gynecologist. This clause provides that the patientmust be referred to a doctor practicing abortions, it suffices to add thiselement in the general clause. There is also an additional conscience clause forsterilizations.Two conscience clausesThe same law mentioned above provided for the elimination of the doubleconscience clause, but this article did not pass second reading in the Assembly.The government is probably afraid that feminists in France will be bored. Youmust not. The texts on sexuality education and their improvement have yet to beobtained - the three annual sessions in college and high school rarely takingplace. We must also fight for material resources in hospitals, the reopening ofabortion centers closed en masse, fair remuneration for doctors so that this actis not based only on activists, the safeguard of social security.The United States is on the verge of allowing states to suppress the right toabortion and the European Parliament is preparing, through agreements betweengroups of parties, to give itself a president hostile to abortion. Women in manycountries do not have access to abortion.Collective organization is our strength, let's join local family planningassociations and feminist collectives, let's build our mobilizations withouthierarchy and without enlightened avant-garde.Christine (UCL Sarthe)To validate[1] Not all women are affected (postmenopausal, infertile, trans women are not)and trans men are. However, it is still the simplest and most politically correctway to put it.[2] "No, a surgical abortion at 16 weeks of amenorrhea is hardly more traumaticor technically difficult than at 14, because yes, there is laceration andextraction by fragments even at earlier terms. There is no need to underline thedetails of the technique, which is strictly the same, in the hope of impressingand offending the sensitivity of our fellow citizens", "Tribune: "We must extendthe deadlines for abortion! »», Le Nouvel Obs, October 7, 2020.https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Droit-a-l-avortement-augmenter-les-delais-et-supprimer-la-clause-de-conscience_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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