It has been 50 years in France since abortion was decriminalized with the Veil law. In New Caledonia, we had to wait a quarter of a century. On September 29, 2000, the Congress of New Caledonia legalized abortion. Twenty years later, what is the situation for the territory?
Since 2018, the Medical voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) can be carried out in the office, whether with the doctor or midwife, for up to nine weeks. But legally, there is no text which provides for the delivery of medicines.
Caledonian women are forced to go to hospital to benefit from a medical abortion. In 2023, 538 women had a voluntary termination of pregnancy at a public hospital. Surgical abortion, for its part, must be carried out in a hospital establishment for up to fourteen weeks.
The 2022 health barometer reveals that 34% of women have had a voluntary termination of pregnancy, almost 3/4 of them have only had one abortion. A little more than 1/5 have had two and 6% have had more than two abortions. The average age for such an intervention is 24 and a half years.
-Women in New Caledonia are not all equal when it comes to abortion. MP Nicolas Metzdorf questioned Aurore Bergé, Minister Delegate in charge of equality between women and men, on the difficulties of access to the right to abortion in New Caledonia, particularly on the east coast, on March 26 2024, while abortion had entered the Constitution three weeks earlier.
France