Abortion in France

[1][2][3] Abortions at later stages of pregnancy up until birth are allowed if two physicians certify that the abortion will be done to prevent injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman; a risk to the life of the pregnant woman; or that the child will suffer from a particularly severe illness recognized as incurable.

Just a month before the invasion of Poland, the Penal Code was altered to permit abortions, but only in the instance where the mother's life was in danger.

However, with the German Occupation and the implementation of the Vichy Government, abortion was made a capital crime, punishable by death, in the Law of 15 February 1942.

In 1971, the "Manifesto of the 343", an open letter and petition, was written by Simone de Beauvoir and published in Le Nouvel observateur.

Later the same year, lawyer Gisèle Halimi, herself one of the 343 women, formed her own group, Choisir ("To Choose"), which worked to protect those who had signed the petition.

The debate that preceded the eventual passing of the vote was accompanied by violent attacks and demonstrations comparing Veil, a concentration camp survivor, with Hitler.

In her speech before the National Assembly on 26 November 1974, Veil declared the need for the legalization of abortion, to bring equality in France, as well as explaining to the majority-male assembly that current French law did not protect women who were suffering from the social exclusion and shame as a result of illegal abortions, as well as the after-effects that led to illnesses (such as sepsis) and even death, calling for the law to offer them protection with a change of law to legalize abortions.

The Veil Act (Law 75–17 of 15 January 1975), permitted a woman to receive an abortion on request until the tenth week of pregnancy.

[9] In reaction to the Supreme Court of the United States's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling, Mathilde Panot, the leader of the La France insoumise group in the National Assembly, introduced a bill for an amendment adding the right to a safe abortion to the Constitution.