News & Events

Ethical Approval for the extension of GA limits in France

23rd December 2020

The French National Consultative Ethics Committee (CCNE) gave green light for extending the legal period for accessing abortion from 12 to 14 weeks of gestation (14 to 16 weeks of amenorrhea). The CCNE states in their communication released on December 11th 2020 that “there is no ethical objection to extending the period of access to voluntary pregnancy termination by two weeks.”

The CCNE estimates in its report that in 2018 between 1500-2000 French women who have exceeded the authorized limit for abortions on women’s request in France traveled to the Netherlands, Spain and England to seek an abortion. According to the results of our recent study, cited in the report – De Zordo et al. (2020) – 70% of French-resident surveyed women who had to undergo such travels were diagnosed with pregnancy after 14 weeks of amenorrhea for various reasons including irregular menstrual cycles, the absence of clinical signs of pregnancy and sometimes persistent periods.

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We are aware of the great difficulties that women who want to interrupt their pregnancy in Europe have to face. That’s why we invite you to share your experience with the project team. With your help, we will be able to improve the study and create a community useful information for all.

If you wish to share your experiences with difficulties accessing abortion care and/or abortion travel please use the form on the right.  

If you tick the box: “I consent to share my story with the research team for research purposes in the terms described on the left side”, researchers will use the story to analyse the barriers to access to safe, legal abortion that lead women to seek illegal abortion or travel to seek abortion care, and women’s experiences with that.

If you also tick the box: “I consent to publish my story in this section” we will anonymize your story and publish it in this section, with only your nickname and/or country (if provided). 

NOTE:
You may choose a nickname to avoid using your real name. We do not collect any personal data, but if you accidentally provide some personal data in your story, we will store this information in a protected file “Research, development and innovation projects with high-level personal data” at the University of Barcelona with the only purpose to anonymize your story by deleting any personal data, and then delete the original story you sent. We will only keep and eventually publish its anonymous version on this website ONLY IF you consent to your story being published by ticking the appropriate box above. Only researchers administering this website have access to its content.

The body responsible for the above file is the General Secretary of the University of Barcelona located on: Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes 585, 08007 Barcelona; email: secretaria.general@ub.edu. You have the right to access, and receive your data in a file (e.g. word, PDF) during the period of the study (5 years). You can also ask and obtain that researchers stop examining them  , and/or ask to correct or request your data to be deleted for up to six months after participating, by emailing your request to the project: bar2legab@ub.edu or to the principal investigator, Dr. Silvia De Zordo: silviadezordo@ub.edu. Please indicate your nickname in your email.

If you need information about this project, please contact us by writing to bar2legab@ub.edu
If you want to read your rights as a participant, visit our Research Ethics section

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    The researchers will review your story and published it (if you have agreed to it) one week after your submission. If you wish to cancel your submission, change your mind about participating, or simply ticked the wrong box when submitting your story, please write to the research team using the email address to the left.

    Europe Abortion Access Project Euroe Research Council Universitad de Barcelona

    This project has received funding from the European Reseach Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme BAR2LEGAB-680004