Two years and one month after the closure of the Ganges maternity ward, and 50 years and one day after the entry into force of the Veil law on voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion), 250 people demonstrated, at the call of the Maternity collective to defend, for the reopening of the service before the future polyclinic is built. Testimonies from women who have experienced a difficult health situation or a birth on the road have punctuated the journey. For the collective, the local perinatal center does not make up for the lack.
The demonstrators went from the Saint-Louis clinic to the town hall • François Desmeures
The Maternity to Defend collective has not lost contact with the authorities. But they have distanced themselves a little, since the maternity clinic of the clinic closed, in December 2022. More than two years now, the precariousness of pregnant women has greatly increased in the valleys which depended on this service and the Testimonies regularly come back from women who had to give birth in their car or who had the instinct not to go home and wait in the parking lot of a Montpellier hospital… The collective, therefore, continues to discuss with the Regional Health Agency (ARS). Even though they haven't seen each other for ten months…
An event in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Veil law on voluntary termination of pregnancy • François Desmeures
“A March 2024”confirms Bruno Canard, one of the spokespersons for the collective, obviously present in front of the Ganges clinic, this Saturday, for the demonstration which both paid tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Veil law and demanded the reopening of the maternity ward. “The commitment made in March was to organize a meeting with all the professionals of the local perinatal center (CPP) and the midwives of the region, specifies Bruno Canard. But it didn't happen. And the CPP has not been strengthened at all, no abortions are performed there. We ask, at least, that the ARS keeps its commitments.”
At the entrance to the clinic, the obstetric department was blocked by demonstrators • François Desmeures
“Obstetrics becomes a combat sport in the Cévennes”quips Bruno Canard, who has the feeling that “on the four communities of municipalities concerned , the elected officials no longer believe in it.”
On site, the two LFI deputies from Gard and Hérault, who participated in the demonstrations before the dissolution, lost their seats. Their RN replacements are not present, and not necessarily wanted either, when the positions of the far-right party, particularly on abortion, are far from embracing the cause of the day. Sébastien Rome, the former Hérault MP is present, as well as the mayor of Dourbies Irène Lebau, deputy of the deposed Gard MP Michel Sala. The mayors of Trier, Mandagout and Saint-Laurent-le-Minier also took out their scarves. •
François Desmeures “We alert, continues Bruno Canard, so that there is real reflection, a steering committee for maternity in the new clinic. We are aware of the medical argument which says “we can’t find a gynecologist.” But we should already upgrade the guards, supervise the interim.” And for the spokesperson for the collective, establishing a constraint on installation in a given territory, at least for a certain time, would be “logic” so that they live “small maternity wards”.
The collective fears that in the end, and despite the 33% subsidy from the ARS paid for the creation of a new maternity ward, it will never see the light of day in the new polyclinic. Several stops took place in the streets of Ganges •
François Desmeures As the speeches begin, the mayor of Trier, Régis Valgalier, philosophizes. “Health is sick and hospitals, in this context, are in palliative care.” Its town is three quarters of an hour from Millau.“But with the new hospital, we will be an hour away. Ganges, it’s an hour and a quarter. I’m not accusing anyone. But this happening today was planned for a long time” he adds, referring to the shortage of doctors. While being ironic: “I still wonder if doctors take the Hippocratic or hypocritical oath…”
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François Desmeures The women who spoke then recalled that a million women have abortions each year in France. Coralie Joly, of the CGT of Vigan, affirmed that“no less than 130 IVG centers have closed in recent years in France” . For the South union, Priscilla Manzanares called for“fight against people who want to call this right into question”
- . Before songs and slogans accompany the procession towards the town hall. Testimonies, inevitably poignant, punctuated the march (read box). Of those who say much more than a meeting with the ARS… Badge and sticker workshops on the Family Planning stand •
François Desmeures
The Ganges clinic mainly concerns three communities of communes in Gard and one straddling Gard and Hérault: Ganges and Sumenois Cévennes, Viganais region, Causse-Aigoual-Cévennes and Cévennes Piedmont.
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François Desmeures
Two women testify to the peril they went through Marianne and Josepha took turns speaking, at the head of the procession, to testify to the danger they felt for their lives and, for one of them, for her child.Suffering from papillomavirus, Marianne was operated on in Montpellier. Returned home, “half an hour from the Ganges emergency room” she noticed at 5:30 p.m. that she was hemorrhaging. “In the emergency room, I was told that the doctor had not performed a gynecological procedure in 17 years.” She therefore leaves for Montpellier, without any offer of transport, to the clinic where she was operated on.
“The emergency gynecologist was at home and did not see fit to come. Finally, I had surgery at 11:30 p.m….” That’s six hours of blood loss and a long journey before surgery. Josepha gave birth to her first child in 2021, in 3 hours 50 minutes, quite quickly for a first birth. This is why she fears this second birth, even though the Ganges maternity hospital has closed and she lives on the Blandas plateau, in Montdardier, 1 hour 20 minutes from Monteplleir and 1 hour 15 minutes from Millau.
“For me, for sure, I’m going to give birth on the road.” At the technical platform in Millau, we provided him with a kit, with towels and equipment to keep baby warm… On the road, her companion recognizes Josepha's cries as signaling the imminent birth and decides to stop in the parking lot of the Sauclières village hall. “We called 15, put it on loudspeaker.”
Josepha takes a deep breath before continuing her story. “My little girl arrived before the firefighters. My child is breathing, but I'm afraid because I'm in pain. The volunteer firefighters of Millau are trembling. It's my companion who cuts the cord for them.”
And Josepha concludes, tersely and ironically: “Today, we are being told that a maternity ward that has few deliveries is dangerous. It's sure, it's much safer to give birth in your car…”
• François Desmeures
The stencils made by the Maternity to Defend collective • François Desmeures
