France Dumps Abortion Restrictions, Will Cover the Cost of All First Trimester Abortions

[niyad]

France Dumps Abortion Restrictions, Will Cover the Cost of All First Trimester Abortions

A new law in France will now allow first-trimester abortions without requiring women to prove a justification for needing the procedure.
The new law, proposed by the French Minister for Women's Rights Najat Vallaud-Belkacem was promulgated last Tuesday. It amends the country's current law, which allows abortion only if a pregnant women can prove "distress." The new law also bans any attempt to restrict women from getting information about abortion services.

The French National Assembly voted to approve the new law in January amid heated controversy. At that time, Vallaud-Belkacem defended the change to the current law, saying Abortion is a right in itself and not something that is simply tolerated depending on the conditions." Under a law passed in 2012, the French government must pay 100 percent of the cost of an abortion from the social security budget. During the debate on the new abortion law, French lawmakers tried unsuccessfully to repeal the funding requirement. The 2012 law also allows adolescents between 15-18 years old to obtain certain contraceptives for free at family planning centers.

The new abortion law is part of a package of proposed gender equality measures to extend paternity leave, promote sex equality at work, decrease sex stereotyping in media, and provide increased support to low-income women and survivors of domestic abuse.

"At a time when women in many parts of the world, including in the United States and Spain, are seeing their rights restricted, violated, and disrespected, France has set an important example for the rest of the globe with its progressive stance toward reproductive health care," said Lilian Sepulveda, Director of the Global Legal Program for the Center for Reproductive Rights. "Ensuring a woman's right to control her fertility is fundamental to achieving gender equality. But passing today's law is just the first step - we now look to French policymakers to ensure women see the benefits of this historic law implemented this year."
. . . . .
While women in the US wait for better and more affordable access to abortion services, France's new law could go into effect as early as 2015.



http://www.msmagazine.com/news/uswirestory.asp?ID=15135

[Dawson Leery]

1. About time.

[niyad]

2. would that we were so advanced

[Mass]

3. This change the law, but in reality, the law was not applied to start with.

It is good to cleanup the law, but it kept the legal time to 14 weeks, I guess, which is still much less than in the States (except a couple crazy states).

http://www.france24.com/fr/20140122-ivg-lassemblee-supprime-notion-controversee-detresse/

There are a lot of things that are better on these issues in France, but they are linked to a decent healthcare coverage and not to a more liberal law. As a French woman, I cringe when I hear that there are still abortion clinics in this country. With a decent medical system, women would go to an hospital and get their procedure anonymously.

[sheshe2]

4. KnR

[niyad]

5. . . .

[LittleBlue]

6. Surprising fact about abortion in France

Abortion in France is legal on demand up to 12-weeks after conception (14 weeks after the last menstrual period),[1][2] since the Veil Law in 1975. Abortions at later stages of pregnancy are allowed if two physicians certify that the abortion will be done to prevent grave permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman; a risk to the life of the pregnant woman; or that the child will suffer from a particularly severe illness recognized as incurable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_France

Western Europe is not the progressive utopia that some portray.

[niyad]

7. what, exactly, do you see as a problem here? and why, since you

are quoting wiki, did you not include the following:


France was the first country to legalize the use of RU-486 as an abortifacient in 1988, allowing its use up to seven weeks of pregnancy. By one estimate, a quarter of all French abortions now use RU-486.

A pregnant girl under the age of 18 may ask for an abortion without consulting her parents first if she accompanied to the clinic by an adult of her choice, who must not tell her parents or any third party about the abortion.[8]

[NickB79]

10. The US limit is generally 20 weeks

I think the poster was pointing out that, despite the fact that the US has a far larger and more active pro-life contingent, our abortion laws are still more liberal than those in France.

And allowing women to make decisions about their own bodies only to 12 weeks is NOT progressive. That's a problem.

[niyad]

12. on the other hand, it really does NOT matter how much time is allowed

in this oh-so-wonderful and progressive nation when there are almost NO clinics to which women can go in many areas. choice is great, so long as there are means to exercise that choice (and this includes expense)

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

13. I admit that I haven't kept up well enough with current abortion laws

but isn't this just like Roe v. Wade? i.e. the first trimester of 12 weeks? Or has Roe v. Wade been replaced?

[JI7]

14. but it looks like it's easier to get the abortion in france in the 12 week period

and either way they are not moving backwards. any new laws just makes it more liberal.

this is not the case in the US.

[LittleBlue]

15. That's exactly it

Thank you. People always get so sensitive when I try to point out how restrictive abortion is in Europe.

[niyad]

17. as opposed to how easy it is here? I notice you had no comment on this information in the wiki

article you quoted:

France was the first country to legalize the use of RU-486 as an abortifacient in 1988, allowing its use up to seven weeks of pregnancy. By one estimate, a quarter of all French abortions now use RU-486.

A pregnant girl under the age of 18 may ask for an abortion without consulting her parents first if she accompanied to the clinic by an adult of her choice, who must not tell her parents or any third party about the abortion.

[Enrique]

8. in Germany they have to have Schwangerschaftskonfliktberatung

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Germany

[hifiguy]

9. Eminently sensible.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

11. France has a Minister for Women's Rights?

I can just hear the loud squealing and oinking from the republican side of the aisle if Obama were to create such a cabinet post.

[niyad]

18. wouldn't be enough smelling salts! the commission on the status of women was bad enough for them.

[joeybee12]

16. This is good news, but what strikes me is that it took this long...

France is behind on social issues, IMHO, which surprises people, but it shouldn't as the best they've had until now has always beena sort of center-right government.

[Unvanguard]

19. Good for France, but potentially vulnerable given unpopularity of the current government.

Hope it sticks.