{"id":232371,"date":"2020-10-08T17:45:55","date_gmt":"2020-10-08T22:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=232371"},"modified":"2020-10-08T17:45:55","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T22:45:55","slug":"france-expand-abortion-hits-record-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/france-expand-abortion-hits-record-high\/","title":{"rendered":"As France attempts to expand abortion limit, country hits record high number of abortions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Under current French law, abortion is legal up to 12 weeks, but pro-abortion lawmakers in France are seeking to expand that limit. In late September, rapporteurs Marie-No\u00eblle Battistel and C\u00e9cile Muschotti introduced<\/a> legislation that would legalize abortion up to 14 weeks, and today, the bill advanced<\/a>, passing its first reading in the French National Assembly.<\/p>\n

As Right to Life UK explains<\/a>, abortion up to 12 weeks is only legal in France if\u00a0\u201cthe continuation of pregnancy would severely endanger the health of the woman.\u201d However, in July, pro-abortion lawmakers in the country\u00a0pushed through a measure<\/a> legalizing abortion through all nine months of pregnancy if there is \u201cpsychological distress\u201d \u2014 a term so vague that the legislation effectively legalizes elective abortion up to birth.<\/p>\n

The expansive amendment was passed<\/a> in the middle of the night as part of the Bio\u00e9thique Bill\u00a0without prior notice of the vote or an impact study. Right to Life UK notes<\/a> that \u201conly 101 National Assembly members voted on the controversial Bill out of a total of 577.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0France criminalizes websites that inform women of abortion\u2019s negative impacts<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The most recent bill seeking to expand abortion in France also seeks to eliminate conscientious objection to committing or participating in abortion. The Catholic News Agency reports<\/a>, \u201cThe bill targets France\u2019s \u2018double conscience clause,\u2019 introduced in 1975, which recognizes both a general right to conscientious objection and a specific right related to abortion. The new law would require doctors and midwives who conscientiously object to give women the names of doctors and midwives who will perform abortions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking about the expansion of the abortion limit and the lack of conscience protections, the president of the National College of French Gynecologists and Obstetricians, Professor Israel Nisand,\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0that at the later gestational age, \u201cThe head of the fetus is ossified and must be crushed. The gesture itself is therefore terrible for the person doing it, and for the patient.\u201d<\/p>\n