France adopts domestic violence bill giving more power to doctors

France’s parliament has voted to implement a bill intended to protect victims of domestic violence.

The legislation allows doctors to break patient confidentiality if they believe a life is “in immediate danger”.

The bill was approved last week by the National Assembly and was adopted unanimously by the Senate on Tuesday.

France has one of the highest rates of murders linked to domestic violence in Western Europe. Last year, 149 women were killed as a result, reports say.

“In our democracy there must be fights that bring us together, and this is what I believe the National Assembly and the Senate demonstrated during the examination of this bill,” the new Minister for Gender Equality, Elisabeth Moreno, said after the vote.

As well as permitting health professionals to break confidentiality in extreme cases, the law also increases prison sentences to 10 years for perpetrators whose actions led the victim to commit suicide or to attempt to commit suicide.

In order to protect children, it also opens up the possibility of suspending parental authority in case of domestic violence.

Senator Marie-Pierre de la Gontrie, head of the Socialist Party, said that while the bill was “not perfect”, it was a step in the right direction.

Last year, 149 women were said to have died as a result of domestic violence, Ms Moreno told deputies last week, quoting figures from advocacy groups.

Since the start of 2020, at least 39 women have been killed by their spouse or former spouse, according to a tally kept by the AFP news agency.

Some advocacy groups activists have previously argued that the government measures do not amount to very much or lack the funding to be truly effective.