Fifty years after the Veil law, several thousand opponents of abortion demonstrated in Paris on Sunday as part of the "march for life" which also aims to denounce the desire to relaunch the parliamentary debate on the law on the end of life.
The procession brought together 4,300 people, according to the police headquarters. The organizers claimed 15,000 participants.
The event is organized every year around the anniversary of the law brought by Simone Veil relating to voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) and promulgated on January 17, 1975.
"It's a march for the right to live, to show that the debate is still open in France, so that the French question the convictions that are defended here," Sophie, 23, who like the other protesters interviewed did not wish to reveal her surname, told AFP.
Speaking on a podium above which a banner proclaimed "50 years of defending life" and where a line was crossed out "50 years of political defeats", the president of the March for Life, Nicolas Tardy-Joubert, affirmed that he was "not afraid to say that abortion is the leading cause of death in France for the human species".
"50 years ago, the Veil law, which decriminalized abortion, was enacted. This law caused heavy human losses and led to the death and exclusion of more than 10 million babies from French society," he told the crowd before they observed a minute of silence.
According to the latest official figures, 243,623 IVGs were registered in 2023, 8,600 more than the previous year.
Although the rules governing abortion have been relaxed since 1975 and "the freedom guaranteed to women" to resort to abortion was enshrined in the Constitution in 2024, feminist associations are alarmed by a right that remains "fragile" and report "regular attacks" by its opponents.
At the start of the demonstration, around ten activists from the feminist collective NousToutes unfurled a banner saying "Anti-abortion activists have blood on their hands" before being removed by the security service.
-"change of civilization"-
In addition to opposing abortion, the organizers of the "march for life" are demanding, as they did last year, a mandatory ultrasound scan from the sixth week of pregnancy, allowing them to "hear the fetus's heartbeat," or a three-day reflection period before any abortion.
They also call for "encouraging anonymous childbirth" and defending "the absolute right to conscientious objection of health personnel and protecting the specific conscience clause."
Another topic on the agenda of the demonstration was the rejection of any "legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia" and the call for "a major plan to make palliative care accessible" to all.
"I think it would really be a change of civilisation if we accepted euthanasia. It's an individualistic way of seeing things," commented Maylis, 54, from Yvelines, in the procession.
Supported by the Attal government, a bill on the end of life was to legalize assisted suicide and, in certain cases, euthanasia, with strict conditions and without using these terms, preferring to speak of "active aid in dying". Its examination was interrupted by the dissolution of the National Assembly.
In his general policy statement, Prime Minister François Bayrou did not comment on this sensitive subject, neither on the examination period nor on the substance, referring the text "to the power of initiative" of Parliament.
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