h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Forty years ago today, Simone Veil, then Health Minister, was in Parliament to defend her project for a bill legalising abortion.


The pill had been legalised in 1967, but it wasn't easily accessible.


In 1971, 343 women, some of them famous (actresses, singers, writers) had published a manifesto saying :
"One million women in France have an abortion every year.
Condemned to secrecy, they have them in dangerous conditions when this procedure, performed under medical supervision, is one of the simplest.
These women are veiled in silence.
I declare that I am one of them. I have had an abortion.
Just as we demand free access to birth control, we demand the freedom to have an abortion".

It became known as the "Manifesto of the 343 sl*ts".


Simone Veil had to face a lot of hostility, even from her own political side.
People calling her a baby killer and saying that what she was suggesting was no better than the nazi death camps. All the more hurtful because she had been deported during the war.
There were people outside the Parliament praying loudly.
There were few women among the MPs.
But there were a lot of women in the public's gallery, who didn't have a say but just wanted to see it happen.

There were people predicting a dramatic rise in abortion numbers, that we would all die out because she would allow all the women to murder their babies.
In 1976, there were 19.6 abortions for 1000 women. Since the 1990s, it has dropped to between 14 and 15 for 1000 women every year.
Not really a tremendous increase, is it ?



Forty years on, it's safer, the women don't risk going to jail any more, and French people are still having babies.

Glad that the French are multiplying, and that they have a choice!

[Amy P]

Personally, I don't think I could have an abortion. Thankfully, I've never been in the position where I've had to consider it. But I'm thankful that I live in a society that would allow me to consider it. I wouldn't dream of judging anyone who had one. Who are we to judge when we can't possibly know that person's reasons? A woman should have complete control over her own body, simple as.

"Manifesto of the 343 sl*ts" That's always a lovely double standard, isn't it?

Brave women. Thanks for this interesting & informative journal.

Deb

Oh, I do hope I'm never in a situation where I have to consider it, I imagine it must be a very difficult decision to make. But I am very grateful to live in a society and an age where it is a choice I have.