Voluntary Termination of Pregnancy: Comparison of Women's Experiences Depending on the Method Used.

Voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) is a major current societal issue. This is a very common situation, around 225,000 abortions are carried out every year in France. The French law of March 2, 2022 (no. 2022-295) extended the legal deadline for voluntary termination of pregnancy from 14 to 16 weeks of amenorrhea (SA). The recommendations have not been updated following this legal extension, the centers performing abortions are therefore free regarding the protocol for carrying out these so-called late abortions (between 14 and 16 weeks). There are two pregnancy termination techniques practiced in France: medical or surgical. The drug method consists of drug-induced expulsion of the pregnancy. This method is carried out in the delivery room, and lasts several hours. The surgical method consists of an endouterine aspiration carried out in the operating room, which lasts approximately 30 minutes. At the Toulouse University Hospital, as in many centers in France, it is the patient who chooses the method, apart from a contraindication to one or other of these methods. Due to the recent nature of these late abortions, practitioners still have little experience of the consequences of these procedures and this compromises the quality of the information provided to patients. It is necessary to have quality studies to improve knowledge about late abortions, in order to be able to correctly inform patients and allow them to make an informed choice regarding the method used.