The announcement appeared in the Official Gazette (JO). Starting this Sunday, December 17, midwives will be able to perform instrumental voluntary terminations of pregnancy (IVG) in health establishments.
The news was welcomed by the Minister of Health, Aurélien Rousseau, on X (formerly Twitter), who considers it “concrete progress for a right to be protected every day.”
According to the ministry’s website, instrumental abortion “consists of aspirating the contents of the uterus after dilation of the cervix.” The procedure can be performed under local or general anesthesia and only lasts about ten minutes.
Until now, only doctors were authorized to perform this type of abortion. The objective, for the Ministry of Health, is to respond to the “difficulties of access” to abortion for many women. It will be necessary for these midwives to be trained in this technique.
Tested in pilot establishments.
Voted in the March 2022 law aimed at strengthening the right to abortionThis new skill was tested for just over a year in 26 pilot establishments.
“I’m doing well wherever I go,” said the minister responsible for Equality between women and men, Bérangère Couillard, during a visit on Tuesday to one of the first pilot establishments, the Pitié Salpêtrière hospital in Paris.
Like doctors, midwives will be able to perform these instrumental abortions up to 16 weeks of amenorrhea, or 14 weeks of pregnancy, as voted by parliamentarians. A first draft decree that reduced this period was criticized at the end of November by the midwives’ unions.
The Ministry of Health also announced in a press release that it had “decided to increase by 25% the prices paid to health facilities for performing abortions, which had not been reviewed since 2016 and were significantly lower than the costs.” incurred by the establishments for this activity”.
Source: BFM TV
