In full confinement linked to the coronavirus, I discovered that I was pregnant. I didn’t want to carry this pregnancy to term, and neither did my boyfriend, for reasons that concern only us.
Accidentally getting pregnant and going to my doctor
I look a little more on the pregnancy test and there is a little panic.
The next morning (it’s a Friday), I call my doctor who has been following me since I was 10 years old. I ran into his replacement, but I trust my doctor and by extension to the people with whom it associates.
I go into the locker that I know well, the replacement is a young woman I’ve never seen before, but she looks good. I sit down and state the reason for my visit:
– I have a problem, I’m pregnant.
– Well done.
With these three words I already feel my confidence waver.
Baffled, I immediately feel the need to justify myself: I explain my situation in detail, how it happened. As I tell my story from A to Z, emotion overwhelms me and I burst into tears.
The doctor’s tone softened.
He’s starting to want to reassure me, only that his speech is more about explaining to me that a pregnancy at my age is safe, that having a child is a wonderful thing, that a pregnancy won’t be seen for a certain period of time. anyway (I have a special relationship with my parents, and being confined to them, I didn’t want them to find out).
Aware that there has probably been a misunderstanding, I interrupt him to explain that I really don’t want to keep it. Radical change of tone!
“Neither your regular doctor nor I tolerate such practices. I’m for life.
From there I hear myself pull it off all the typical phrases of the anti-abortion discourseincredulous.
Among the fragments that marked me, I keep the ” “There is a child inside you (at the time of the appointment I was up to 3 weeks pregnant). THE ” studies are not a problem “.
And, of course, the fact that my partner’s opinion is very, very important, even essential. I remember she insisted a lot on whether I had warned him, by what means, saying that I had to call him because perhaps she hadn’t quite understood the situation, and that after all she too was her child.
Note, however, that the question of my partner’s opinion had not been raised when she still thought I was going to continue the pregnancy…
I didn’t react to my anti-abortion doctor
Perhaps when you read this testimonial, you are thinking ” If I was in his situation, I would have cursed this doctor “. In any case, in your place I probably would have thought so.
But strangely, I didn’t really react, just asked if I could leave. Shyly. Shamefully, too. I came out of the closet, called my boyfriend to tell him everything.
He got angry right away, but I was still in a state of shock. I cried again. I didn’t really know what to do, I trusted my doctor to reassure me, guide me, not make me feel guilty.
I don’t think I really expected this to happen to me. I had before me a health professional, young, a woman in whom I was ready to give all my trust, in a familiar environment…
In short, I was not in a distant testimony in which I learn that a spiteful doctor wanted to manipulate a woman into adapting her life choices to her own ideological expectations.
I really had the idea that finally, my chances of being in this kind of situation, in France today, they were infinitely small if not none at all.
My state of mind after the appointment with an anti-abortion doctor
However, the doctor gave me the number of the nearby gynecological emergency room, which I should have contacted directly, being the only place in my region where you can have an abortion (even if it is only a medical abortion).
But she did it above all because the law against the obstacle to the right to abortion obliges her to do so.
Article L. 2223-2 of the Public Health Code states that:
“It is punished with two years’ imprisonment and a fine of 30,000 euros. the fact of preventing or attempting to prevent practicing or obtaining information on the voluntary termination of pregnancy o the previous acts provided for in articles from L. 2212-3 to L. 2212-8 by any means, including by electronic or online means, in particular by means of the dissemination or transmission of accusations or indications likely to intentionally lead to error, to dissuasive purposes, on the characteristics or medical consequences of a voluntary termination of pregnancy:
- Or by interrupting access to the establishments referred to in article L. 2212-2, the free movement of people within these establishments or the working conditions of medical and non-medical personnel;
- By exerting moral and psychological pressure, threats or any act of intimidation against persons requesting information on the voluntary termination of pregnancy, medical and non-medical personnel working in the establishments referred to in the same article L 2212-2, women who come to have a voluntary termination of pregnancy or those around them. »
Note that this law is the subject of two reservations by the Constitutional Council based on the risks of violation of freedom of expression and communication.
The first :
“The mere dissemination of information to an indeterminate audience in any medium, especially on an online public communication site, cannot be considered as pressure, threat or act of intimidation. »
The second one :
“The crime of obstruction […] it can be established only under two conditions: that information is requested and not an opinion; that such information concerns the conditions in which an abortion is practiced or its consequences and that it is given by whoever has or claims to have competence in the matter. »
The doctor didn’t give up either, as a few days later I received a call on my cell phone. Since it was an unknown number, I let the call go to voicemail.
She took the trouble to get back to me, she admits in her message that she has put a lot of thought into my situation and gets back to me to recommend a helpline number” run by very good, non-judgmental people ».
Seeing his speech, I became suspicious and first googled the number in question.
And there, unsurprisingly, is a number managed by the volunteers of a fundamentally anti-abortion association, at the origin of the site SOS child…
The site speaks for itself: it’s a gold mine of retrograde ideas, propaganda, and disinformation, posing as a source of help for anyone concerned about an unwanted pregnancy.
What I learned from this appointment with my anti-abortion doctor
If there’s one thing this experience has taught me, is that access to abortion will never be a fully acquired right.
Surrounded by like-minded people, particularly on feminism, anti-sexism and women’s right to dispose of their bodies, I had practically forgotten the existence of anti-abortionists, relegated to a distant stereotyped concept of minorities and fundamentalists.
However, the fight against abortion still exists and is even being organized.
We saw it a few years ago with the “Survivors” movement, in particular. Websites that misinform and scare young women in trouble are still active and very well referenced by Google.
The anti-abortion movement of the “Survivors” is made up largely of young people in their twenties and declares itself apolitical and not religious.
It was born out of their idea that, with 220,000 abortions a year in France, every person born could have been aborted.
They therefore speak of the survivor syndrome as suffering and consider themselves “abortion survivors”.
On June 4, 2016, Survivors made headlines with their own happening in Paris. We have seen them in several videos and interviews; their lunar argument has thankfully discredited them for the most part.
I was fortunate to have a supportive entourage, especially my sister and boyfriend (whose parents are also anti-abortion, which we learned during this ordeal).
For readers who may be in my case and feel uncomfortable, lean towards the toll-free number “Sexuality, contraception, IVG” of Family Planning, 0 800 08 11 11, active from 9.00 to 20.00 from Monday to Saturday.
Listeners will be able to advise and reassure you. On the other hand, avoid lying and militant sites like SOS baby, IVG.net or Ecouteivg.org at all costs.
And even if a doctor makes ideologically oriented observations, keep in mind that abortion is above all YOUR choice. And most importantly, whatever you decide, there will be nothing shameful or reprehensible.
In France, the medical profession has the option of saying no to the practice of a treatment: it is the conscience clause.
As recalled by the National Council of the Order of Doctors in a 2011 report:
“The conscience clause is […] the right to refuse to carry out a medical act authorized by law but which (the doctor) deems contrary to his personal, professional or ethical beliefs. »
This clause applies to any medical act, but there are three types of acts covered by further specific conscience clauses:
- research on embryos and stem cells
- sterilization for contraceptive purposes
- voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG).
However, even if the Public Health Code indicates that ” a doctor is never required to perform an abortion “, he also points outhe must ” immediately communicate the names of the trainees » who will be able to carry out the intervention.
If you want to know more about the conscience clause and the related debate, you can check out Esther’s article Should the conscience clause be abolished to guarantee the right to abortion?
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Source: Madmoizelle
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
