 | ||
Abortion in France is legal on demand up to 12 weeks after conception, 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.
In the Middle Ages abortion was considered a cardinal sin by Catholic Church teaching. Abortion had been criminalized in France with the imposition of the 1810 Napoleonic Code, which punished any person who procured an abortion with imprisonment. In 1939, the Penal Code was altered to permit an abortion that would save the pregnant woman's life. During the German occupation during World War II, the Vichy régime made abortion a capital crime. The last person to be executed for abortion was Marie-Louise Giraud, who was guillotined on 30 July 1943. Following the war, the death penalty for abortion was abolished, but abortion continued to be prosecuted vigorously.
Illegal abortion rates remained fairly high during the post-war period, and increasing numbers of women began to travel to the United Kingdom to procure abortions after the UK legalized abortion in 1967. France legalized abortion in Law 75-17 of 18 January 1975, which permitted a woman "in a situation of distress" to receive an abortion on request until the tenth week of pregnancy. After a trial period, Law 75-17 was adopted permanently in December 1979. The ten-week limit was extended to the twelfth week in 2001. After then, two physicians must certify that the patient's health is endangered or there is a high likelihood that the fetus is handicapped by a non-curable serious illness; otherwise, abortion is illegal. Until 2015, the law imposed a seven-day "cool-off" period between the patient's first request for an abortion and a written statement confirming her decision. The delay could be reduced to two days if the patient was getting close to 12 weeks. That mandatory period was suppressed on 9 April 2015. French law requires that multidisciplinary diagnostic centers decide which birth defects are severe enough to make abortion after 12 week limits.
Since 1982, much of the costs of abortions are taken in charge by the French social security system.
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 under supervision of a physician. By a United Nations Population Division estimate, 19% of all French abortions used RU-486 as of 2002.
A pregnant girl under the age of 18 may ask for an abortion without consulting her parents first if she is accompanied to the clinic by an adult of her choice, who must not tell her parents or any third party about the abortion.
As of 2009, the abortion rate was 17.4 abortions per 1000 women aged 15–44, a slight increase over the 2002 rate of 16.9 abortions per 1000 women aged 15–44.