- In 1967, the Neuwirth law legalized contraception, but access to it remained difficult.
- On 27 May 1974, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was elected President of the Republic. From the start of his mandate, he wanted to carry out societal reforms.
- Abortion is illegal in France. Women who terminate pregnancy are liable to criminal prosecution, which can go as far as imprisonment.
- In the 1970s, feminist movements demanded the legalization of abortion. The arguments put forward are that women are free to dispose of their bodies and that clandestine terminations of pregnancy are dangerous.
- In 1971, “Le manifesto des 343” was a women’s petition calling for the decriminalization and legalization of abortion. The text is written by Simone de Beauvoir. The doctors came together in 1973. Together, they signed "the manifesto of 331" where they claimed to practice terminations of pregnancy illegally because of French law. In 1972, a 16-year-old girl was accused of having had an abortion following a rape. His judgment, the Bobigny trial, became a political trial around the issue of abortion.
January 17, 1975
Characters
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Simone Veil
Procedure
The President of the Republic, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, instructs the Minister of Health, Simone Veil, to prepare a legal text on the decriminalization and legalization of abortion in 1974. The legal text is adopted by the National Assembly, after agitated debates between the deputies. The right voted against the text, but thanks to the support of the left, Simone Veil's text obtains the majority.
The text of the law was promulgated on January 17, 1975, it was named Veil law in honor of the one who initiated it. The text is adopted as an experiment for 5 years.
The text of the law frames and defines two types of abortion:medical termination of pregnancy (IMG) and voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG). Medical termination is practiced under very specific conditions at any time during pregnancy:the mother's wishes and the opinion of the medical profession; while the voluntary interruption is done at the request of the mother in the first 12 weeks of her pregnancy.
Consequences
- The Veil law is definitively confirmed by the law of December 31, 1979 on the voluntary termination of pregnancy.
- Since 1983, health insurance has covered the costs of treatment and hospitalization for voluntary terminations of pregnancy.