50 years after decriminalization of abortion, France passes law to innocent convicts

The objective is that the State recognizes that the legislation in force before 1975 was “an attack on the protection of women’s health, sexual and reproductive autonomy” and “rights of women”, causing “numerous deaths”, being a source of “physical and moral suffering”.

This text “is a way of saying that shame must change aside, that these laws were criminal,” he told AFP Laurence Rossignol, who defends “a memorial approach after decades of shame and silence.”

“While the defense of the right to abortion is being attacked worldwide, we need to tell the whole world that there are countries that do not give in,” the senator insists.

The bill also proposes the creation of a commission to recognize the damage suffered by women who aborted, with the responsibility of contributing to “collection” and “memory transmission” of forced women to clandestine abortions and those who helped them. However, the text does not provide any compensation to reimburse who was affected.

“Act of tribute” and memory

The minister designated for equality between women and men, Aurore Bergé, greeted an “tribute act” to “do justice to those who fought in the shadows, those who paid the price with their own freedom, sometimes with their own lives, for the simple right to self -determination.”