Veil Act

The Loi Veil, officially the "Law of 17 January 1975 on the voluntary termination of pregnancy" (French: loi du 17 janvier 1975 relative à l'interruption volontaire de grossesse), is a law pertaining to the decriminalization of abortion in France.

After the Bobigny trial, the minister of justice instructed the Ministère public to cease prosecuting abortion.

As Minister of Justice, it fell to Jean Lecanuet to defend the law in Parliament, but he refused on grounds of personal ethics.

She brought the law before the National Assembly on 26 November 1974, declaring in her speech: I say this with all my conviction: Abortion must remain the exception, the last recourse for situations without any other option.

Jean Foyer, who led the opposition to the law, declared in his response: Have no doubt: Capital is already impatient to invest in this industry of death, and it will not be long until we come to know these "abor-toirs" in France, these abattoirs where they pile up the corpses of little babies, slaughterhouses my colleagues have had the opportunity to visit abroad.After some 25 hours of intense debate by 74 speakers, the law was finally adopted by the Assembly on 29 November 1974 at 3:40 am, by a vote of 284 in favour and 189 against, thanks to the near-unanimous support from the parties of the left and the centre, against the objection of the majority, but not the entirety, of the members on the right, led by Jean Foyer (UDR), and including Simone Veil's own party.