Unanimously, the National Assembly voted on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, March 9, a bill to better support women after a miscarriage, with psychological support and sick leave without a waiting day. Adopted at first reading, this text by MoDem MP Sandrine Josso, member of the presidential majority, must now be examined in the Senate.
By way of amendment, the government has added a measure, already unveiled by Elisabeth Borne, establishing paid sick leave without a waiting day for a woman who has suffered a miscarriage, unlike a classic sick leave. This “lifting of the deficiency will occur as soon as possible and at the latest” the 1is January 2024, underlined the Minister of Health, François Braun.
An “unfairly trivialized” experience
The ecologist Marie-Charlotte Garin and several left-wing elected officials asked in vain for a “additional tool” : a specific leave of three days off in the event of a miscarriage, giving women the choice between this leave and sick leave. Some voices of the majority went in their direction. François Braun, for his part, considered that the sick leave “enables confidentiality to be guaranteed”, especially vis-à-vis the employer.
At the opening of the debates, MP Sandrine Josso returned to the traumatic experience and “unfairly trivialized” of miscarriage. A “pregnancy in four” ends in miscarriage and “one in ten women” is confronted during her life with this ordeal, she recalled.
In this text, it is specified that the regional health agencies (ARS) will have to set up, from September 2024, a ““Miscarriage course” which associates medical professionals and hospital and liberal psychologists”so that women and their partners are systematically informed and oriented.
Registered Psychologist
The bill also allows midwives, and not only doctors, to directly refer their patients who have suffered a miscarriage and their partners to a psychologist approved by Medicare. This orientation would take place within the framework of an already existing device, “My psy course”, which allows to benefit from sessions with a psychologist, with a support by the Health insurance and the complementary health.
The Minister of Health said that “Our health system does not leave enough room for women’s health, this must change. (…) A spontaneous termination of pregnancy is an intimate drama”.