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France exonerates women convicted over abortions before legalisation / Photo: © AFP
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France exonerates women convicted over abortions before legalisation
French lawmakers on Thursday unanimously approved a bill exonerating women punished for abortion 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 abortion" 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 abortion 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 abortion, 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 abortions 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 abortions 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 abortion.
Last year it became the first country in the world to enshrine the right to terminate a pregnancy in its constitution.
Abortion 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 abortion," 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" abortions for all women on the continent, where access varies markedly from one country to another.
L. Dias--JDB
