The government is rectifying the situation. A new decree, published this Wednesday, April 24, in the Official Gazette, should make it possible to “simplify” the practice of surgical voluntary interruption of pregnancy (IVG) by midwives trained for this purpose, stressed the delegate minister in charge of Health. Federico Valletoux.
“As long as they do it in an establishment that has authorization to (do) these types of acts, it is not necessary to have a doctor next to them who, over their shoulders, review what they would do,” said the minister. he said this Wednesday on France Inter.
The conditions of care and the procedure to follow in case of complications “will from now on be identical regardless of the professional who performs the act of instrumental abortion, fully recognizing the role and experience of midwives,” his ministry underlines in a statement.
This measure should also allow “improving and facilitating access to abortion throughout the territory,” says the Ministry of Health.
A first decree considered unsatisfactory
This is a request from midwives, after a first decree published in December. This was “well below the expectations” of the “profession and defenders of women’s rights,” estimated the National Council of the Order of Midwives, because it set restrictive performance conditions for these professionals.
It provides, for example, for “a prior consultation with a doctor”, which is equivalent to “not changing many things”, acknowledged Minister Frédéric Valletoux in March.
The December decree would also require the simultaneous presence in the establishment of a doctor specializing in orthogenics, an obstetrician-gynecologist, an anesthetist and an embolization tray (to manage extremely rare complications), conditions to which only large maternity hospitals respond, especially those of university hospitals. These conditions also go beyond those required for childbirth, which however is more risky according to professionals.
Since 2016, midwives have also been able to perform medical abortions, which account for 78% of abortions performed in France, according to Drees, the studies department of the Ministry of Health.
Prescriptions to prescribe these medications can be obtained through teleconsultation from 2022, a way to “facilitate access to abortion”, as the Ministry of Health highlighted this Wednesday. With this same perspective, a decree, published in March, also increased abortion prices by 25%, reimbursed by Health Insurance. French deputies and senators, meeting in Congress in Versailles, overwhelmingly approved the inclusion of abortion in the Constitution in March, making France the first country to do so explicitly.
Source: BFM TV
