Overview
- The regional health agency confirmed the definitive shutdown on October 31 after the clinic lost HAS certification and its operator could no longer sustain operations.
- Several hundred people, including staff in violet blouses and Femen activists, gathered for farewells and to protest the decision.
- Founded in 1964, the small non-profit became a reference for low‑intervention births and hosted clandestine abortions before the 1975 law legalizing abortion.
- Activity dwindled from about 1,200 births in 2020 to around 700 in 2024, worsening finances and putting roughly 75 permanent staff at risk.
- Health Minister Stéphanie Rist said the facility will be replaced by a women's health center offering pre‑ and postnatal care but not childbirth.