Skip to main content

Free abortion and contraception in France

Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Uruguay have all been in the news lately because of controversy over modest attempts to move away from restrictive (or total) bans on abortion.

The context in France, meanwhile, is completely different. Abortion is available 'on demand' in France through the first trimester of pregnancy then more restricted after that. The French government is expected to pass a law that provides free contraception for all and funds all abortions, even for minors. One gets the sense that this move is not terribly controversial. Furthermore, minors in France already have widespread access to contraceptives and are not required to seek parental consent to have an abortion.

The differences between French and American political cultures are interesting, too. In France:
  1. The link between free access to contraception and lower abortion rates is accepted.
  2. Not only is it appropriate that minors have access to contraception and abortion, it especially important that they have it, and for free.
  3. Control over family planning via contraception and abortion is viewed as a basic human right.
  4. The state, as part of the general social contract, has a positive obligation to provide the resources necessary to make one's human rights concrete and not just theoretical. 
If this news is going to have any impact in the U.S., my guess would be that pro-life groups will use the French experience as an example of what happens when one goes down the slippery slope of 'socialist' government support for family planning. 

Links:

Article in The Huffington Post (October 26, 2012); the article, in its tone and emphasis, betrays obvious sympathy for the general French perspective: France Free Abortion Bill: Lawmakers Vote to Fully Reimburse Procedure

Article in LifeSiteNews.com (October 26, 2012): French Natl Assembly votes for full funding of abortion, free contraception for girls 15 and up


Summary of French abortion law by Choice Ireland: Abortion information France

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Medically necessary abortions: The battle of the experts

Apparently, Representative Joe Walsh is not entirely alone! The assertion that an abortion is never medically necessary has been floating around in the pro-life universe for at least a little while. We are now witnessing a battle of the experts. One the one side is Joe Walsh and friends. Walsh himself released a pdf document with quotations from several doctors-- including some historically prominent pro-choice doctors, like Alan Guttmacher-- making the 'never medically necessary' claim seem quite reasonable. Also on Walsh's side are several doctors  who particpated in a recent "International Symposium on Maternal Health" in Dublin. Ireland, despite a European Court of Human Rights ruling in 1992 , has a total ban on abortion. Irish pro-lifers want the country's politicians to resist pressure to implement even a life exception, so the question of medical necessity is directly relevant there. The "Dublin Declaration," released after the S...
3 comments
Read more

Spontaneous miscarriage and the morality of abortion

Hello, everyone! I have been away from the blog for a while, during a period of great activity regarding reproductive politics. So let's get back to discussing this always-interesting topic.  In reading an essay by Gary Gutting (subject of a separate post), I followed a link to this blog post by philosopher Peter Smith.  He wonders why intentional termination of an early pregnancy is more morally consequential than a spontaneous early miscarriage (which occurs in roughly 30% of conceptions). What he is really doing is calling attention to a perceived hypocrisy by pro-life advocates: If unborn are valuable humans from the moment of conception, why isn't there more of an outcry over the heavy loss of human life by natural miscarriage? If the value of the unborn is equal across all situations, Smith suggests, then this apparent lack of concern over natural miscarriage indicates that opposition to abortion, at least early in pregnancy, is about something else.  ...
Post a Comment
Read more