This Friday is an important anniversary for women's rights. These are 50 years of the Veil law authorizing abortion. Since then, several steps have been taken, at the legislative, medical and access levels. In Lozère, in particular, the last few years have been crucial.
In the least populated department of France, only one reference center exists to perform voluntary termination of pregnancy, the Mende Hospital. Gretel Grimal is a maternity executive:
“Here, the midwives take care of the three departments, that is to say the maternity, the gynecology and the orthogenics department. That's what we call in a hospital the department which takes care of the IVG The real development in Lozère is that there are many independent professionals, therefore general practitioners or midwives, who have agreed with the hospital to carry out independent abortions, that is to say. that women don't come to the hospital. It's very important, because. Lozère is very small. Everyone knows each other. And yes, We don't always want everyone to know, and that's normal.. We here keep absolute secrecy. We even have the possibility of making registrations under X. We must have this possibility for patients. But now, they can also do it privately, and that will of course only concern medicinal methods.”
“What matters is that women all have access to abortion, regardless of their means, their culture, their language”
A development that women quickly seized upon. While the hospital performed an average of 130 abortions per year previously, in 2023 it recorded 65 and last year 75.
“There is no less, it's just that we have diluted the offer. For example, we have a health professional who practices in Florac, so the patients who live there go to him, that avoids coming to Mende, that matters a lot. What is important is that women all have access to abortion and regardless of their means, their culture, their language, they must have access to abortion and it must be possible.
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And if the hospital is too impressive, you can talk to your general practitioner, a private midwife or even family planning.
A brochure was produced with all the partners to provide information:
“We made a brochure, dont quite a few departments use it to do the same thing on their scale. Because there is the possibility of scanning a QR code discreetly in the waiting room as soon as you see this leaflet and not to take it home. And that, when we are young or when we are perhaps in a family with a culture that does not really tolerate abortion, it allows us to have the possibility of coming to consult professionals, to know where to go, when and how .“
