In brief:<\/strong> in 2020, during the examination of the French bill aimed at strengthening the right to abortion, the European Observatory for Non-Discrimination and Fundamental Rights (EONDFR \/ OENDDF) took the view that, before extending the legal time limit for abortion, women should be given the means not to exceed it. It makes four recommendations: a sexual and reproductive health policy, a pro-natalist policy, shorter waiting times for access to abortion, and the preservation of the conscience clause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This position paper was drafted by the European Observatory for Non-Discrimination and Fundamental Rights (EONDFR) in 2020, during the examination of the French bill to strengthen the right to abortion, presented on 16 September 2020. It draws in particular on information report No. 3343 of the French National Assembly\u2019s Delegation for Women\u2019s Rights on access to abortion, published the same day.<\/p>\n Voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) has been legal in France since 1975. It refers to a termination of pregnancy decided for non-medical reasons, following a personal or family decision. Where the procedure is carried out for medical reasons, it is referred to as a therapeutic or medical termination of pregnancy (ITG \/ IMG).<\/p>\n There are two types of methods: medication abortion, which does not require hospitalisation but is reserved for early pregnancies (up to five weeks of pregnancy, i.e. seven weeks of amenorrhoea), and surgical methods, used beyond that point and up to the end of the legal time limit. In 2020, Article L2212-1 of the French Public Health Code allowed abortion before the end of the twelfth week of pregnancy, i.e. before the end of the fourteenth week after the first day of the last menstrual period.<\/p>\n Beyond being a physiological act, abortion has become the symbol of a feminist social struggle: the freedom to dispose of one\u2019s own body and to decide on one\u2019s reproduction. This struggle sets women, who claim the right to dispose of their bodies, against pro-life advocates, who claim the right of embryos to be born and recall the principle of the non-disposability of the human body. Between the two, the medical profession calls for caution and claims the conscience clause.<\/p>\n The debate concerns extending the time limit to 14 weeks of pregnancy, in particular to spare 3,000 to 5,000 women from having to travel abroad for an abortion. Yet at 14 weeks of pregnancy the skull is ossified: the medical procedure is different and carries greater risks for the woman. The bill also removes the notion of a conscience clause specific to abortion, without eliminating it in practice.<\/p>\n The ethical debate must therefore address the underlying issues, by analysing the factors that lead more than 200,000 women each year to terminate their pregnancy, and those that prevent them from doing so within the time limits set by law. According to DREES, the increase in abortions is part of a broader context of falling birth rates since 2014, often linked to economic considerations.<\/p>\n For EONDFR, the aim is not to \u201csatisfy\u201d the feminist cause, but to act responsibly, respecting women\u2019s physical and mental health on the one hand, and the life they carry on the other. Before extending the time limit for abortion, the additional measures listed above should be put in place to enable women not to exceed the time limit currently set by law.<\/p>\n This position paper was drafted in 2020, in the context of the bill then under discussion. This is an English translation of the original French text; the data, references and positions are those of the original, and quotations from French sources are unofficial translations. This page presents a summary; the full text is available in the PDF.<\/p>\n![\"EONDFR](\"https:\/\/europeanobsndfr.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/EONDFR_Vignette_Position_Abortion_2020_EN.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\nContext<\/h3>\n
I. Abortion in France: framework and methods<\/h3>\n
II. A deeply divisive social debate<\/h3>\n
III. Two fundamental findings<\/h3>\n
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IV. EONDFR\u2019s four recommendations<\/h3>\n
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Conclusion<\/h3>\n
Sources and references<\/h3>\n
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Methodological note<\/h3>\n
📄 Download the full position paper (PDF)<\/a><\/h3>\n