Question 7558 — voluntary termination of pregnancy

Summary

Mrs. Pascale Martin alerts the Minister of Health and Prevention to the difficulties in obtaining abortion pills in several French departments. In a press release dated April 13, 2023, the Observatory for Transparency in Medicines Policies (OTMeds) relayed the alert launched by departmental branches of Family Planning. The latter say they have been confronted “for several weeks with difficulties supply of abortion pills", more particularly misoprostol-based products. These supply difficulties are serious, because they constitute an obstacle to the right to access an abortion and to freely choose their abortion method (medicated or instrumental), within the legal deadlines. It should be remembered that more than three quarters of abortions in France are carried out by medical method and only one laboratory (Nordic Pharma) has exclusivity on the manufacture of these products. The National Medicines Safety Agency recognizes that Misoprostol has been “in tension” since September 2022. On its website, the agency indicated that the product would be made available for the end of September 2022 and yet, supply difficulties, going locally to real shortages, have been reported to several repeated in recent weeks. It was not until April 13, 2023 that the agency made a change on its site, this time indicating that the product would be available again at the end of April. As OTMeds points out in its press release, it is alarming that shortages and shortages are observed on the ground, even before the ANSM and the Government report them; and that alerts from health professionals and associations have not been heard. She therefore asks what the Government intends to do to remedy these supply difficulties and to secure long-term access to abortion pills for all women who wish to have an abortion, throughout the national territory.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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