In 2025, 259,400 abortions were recorded in France, compared with 251,270 in 2024. The rate of abortion has now reached 17.8 abortions per 1,000 women aged between 15 and 49, compared with 17.3 last year. Since 2016, apart from during COVID, the rise has been continuous. In less than ten years, the rate of abortion has risen from 14.6‰ to 17.8‰, resulting in the current record level, which is also the highest rate in the European Union.
Whereas these figures should trigger a genuine public debate, the public authorities appear to be limiting their strategy to facilitating access to abortion without ever considering the reasons which are leading ever more women to abort.
Nevertheless, many questions remain unanswered: what is the effect of financial hardship, in a context of reducing purchasing power? How can one better consider situations of vulnerability, family or marital pressures, or the material difficulties experienced by some women confronting an unexpected pregnancy?
More generally, this increase is occurring at a time when France is experiencing a long-term demographic crisis. According to a recent survey by UNAF (National Union of Family Associations), more than two thirds of parents say they do not have sufficient financial resources to have another child.
Since it is an irreversible act which threatens human life, abortion should never be forced upon women. There is an urgent social need to protect them from all pressures, to provide them with the means to continue their pregnancy whenever they so wish and to enable them to fully explore all the alternatives available. Prevention is at the very heart of all public health policies. Abortion should not be an exception to the rule.
The French public are in fact strongly in favour: 65 % consider that society should do more to help women to avoid abortion and 81 % support the establishment of a prevention policy as well as the organisation of a public survey on the causes, conditions and consequences of abortion.
For many, abortion remains a tragedy to be avoided. The failure of the current policy, illustrated by the constant increase in the number of abortions, calls for a change of approach in favour of prevention.