French lawmakers on Thursday unanimously approved a bill exonerating women punished for ab0rti0n before it was legalised in 1975, a moved praised by feminist groups as a stand for reproductive rights.
A unanimous vote in parliament’s lower house, the National Assembly, finalised the adoption of a proposal that was accepted by the Senate in March and backed by the government.
Its text recognises that enforcement of previous laws “criminalising the use of, practice of, access to, and information about ab0rti0n” constituted “an infringement of the protection of women’s health, of sexual and reproductive autonomy”, as well as “of women’s rights”.
The pre-1975 laws led to “numerous deaths” and caused “physical and moral suffering”, it adds.
This “is an act of justice toward those thousands of lives shattered by unjust laws”, said Aurore Berge, the minister-delegate for gender equality, during a speech in which she spoke of an ab0rti0n her mother had.
“We have a responsibility to make amends, but above all we have a duty to sound the alarm,” she added, highlighting attacks on women’s rights “all around the world”.
Between 1870 and 1975, more than 11,660 people were convicted for performing or seeking an ab0rti0n, according to official estimates.
The law does not provide for reparations but stipulates the creation of a commission tasked with helping collect and share memories of women forced into secret ab0rti0ns and of those who helped them.
On Thursday, lawmakers welcomed the presence in the gallery of Claudine Monteil, one of 343 women who in 1971 signed an open letter saying that they had had ab0rti0ns and calling for legalisation.
France decriminalised the voluntary termination of a pregnancy with the 1975 Veil Law, named after women’s rights champion and health minister Simone Veil, who championed legalising ab0rti0n.
Last year it became the first country in the world to enshrine the right to terminate a pregnancy in its constitution.
Ab0rti0n remains a hot-button political issue in many countries, with some including the United States rolling back reproductive rights in recent years.
“France is sending a clear message, at home and abroad: no one should ever be convicted for having an ab0rti0n,” the Women’s Foundation, a feminist group, said in a statement.
The European Parliament adopted a text this week urging the European Union to facilitate access to “safe” ab0rti0ns for all women on the continent, where access varies markedly from one country to another.
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