when abortion killed women in France

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States ended the right to abortion nationwide. Several American states have already banned voluntary terminations of pregnancy on their territory, but will these decisions put an end to abortions?

Let’s look at what was happening in France before 1975, that is to say before the law which decriminalized abortion, defended by the Minister of Health Simone Veil.

Before the Veil law, how did women deal with an unwanted pregnancy?

Four witnesses of this time tell us. They and they resorted to clandestine abortion, helped women to have abortions or performed illegal abortions.

Sources :

• “Evolution of the number of terminations of pregnancy in France between 1976 and 2002”, Claudine Pirus and Clémentine Rossier, Populationn^o 1, vol. 62, p. 57-90, 2007. URL : https://www.cairn.info/revue-population-2007-1-page-57.htm
• “Gender and Activism in the Abortion and Contraceptive Freedom Movement. Practice of abortions (1973-1979)”, Bibia Pavard, Clio. History‚ women and societiesn^o 29, 2009. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/clio/9217.
• Evolution of the number of abortions and annual indices since 1976, National Institute for Demographic Studies. URL: https://www.ined.fr/fr/tout-savoir-population/chiffres/france/abortions-contraception/abortions/#r174.
• “History(ies) of the MLAC (1973-1975)”, Michelle Zancarini-Fournel, Clio. History‚ women and societies, n^o 18, 2003. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/clio/624.
• “How we liberated abortion… quite a story”, Human Rights League, September 2010. URL: https://site.ldh-france.org/paris20/comment-on-a-libere-labordon -it’s a story/.
• « The pregnancy-related mortality impact of a total abortion ban in the United States : a research note on increased deaths due to remaining pregnant » (anglais), Amanda Jean Stevenson, Demographyn^o 6, vol. 58, 2021. URL : https://read.dukeupress.edu/demography/article/58/6/2019/265968/The-Pregnancy-Related-Mortality-Impact-of-a-Total.
• « The association between state-level abortion restrictions and maternal mortality in the United States, 1995-2017 » (anglais), Amy N. Addante et al., Contraceptionn^o 5, vol. 104, p. 496-501, 2021. URL : https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010782421000901.
• « State abortion policies and maternal death in the United States, 2015‒2018 » (anglais), Dovile Vilda et al., American Journal of Public HealthSeptember 2021. URL: https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306396?.
• “Evolution of the number of deaths declared due to abortion”, Gérard-François Dumont and Jean Legrand, Populationn^o 2, vol. 36, p. 410-414, 1981. URL : https://www.persee.fr/doc/pop_0032-4663_1981_num_36_2_17182.
• My MLAC years. Small Time.news of a great conquestIrène Jouannet, Croquant editions, “Documents”, 2020.

Julia Galan et Elisa Bellanger(Motion design)

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