Seine-Saint-Denis, bastion of the fight for the decriminalization of abortion

“We can no longer turn a blind eye to the 300,000 abortions which, each year, mutilate the women of this country, which flout our laws and which humiliate or traumatize those who have them.” On November 26, 1974, Simone Veil presented the bill on the decriminalization of voluntary termination of pregnancy to the National Assembly. On January 17, 1975, the law carried by the Minister of Health was promulgated.

Fifty years later, return to the key places in Seine-Saint-Denis, theater of feminist struggles.

Bobigny: a historic trial as the beginnings of the Veil law

In October 1972, Marie-Claire, 17, was tried for illegal abortion at the Bobigny court. The young woman is represented by Gisèle Halimi who makes this trial a political forum alongside Simone de Beauvoir. Both founded Choosing the Cause of Women, a movement fighting for the decriminalization of abortion in 1971, shortly after the publication of the “manifesto of the 343”.

Published in the pages of New Observerthis petition is signed by 343 French women who made their abortion public, exposing themselves to criminal prosecution which could go as far as imprisonment.

The Bobigny trial then took place in building K, in the heart of the former administrative city of the Bergère departmental park. Me Halimi makes Bobigny not the trial of the accused, but that of the repressive law.

In her plea, she demonstrates the obsolete nature of article 317 of the penal code of 1810 which condemns abortion and the law of July 31, 1920 repressing provocation of abortion and the contraceptive propagandapushing public authorities to change the law. At the end of the trial, Marie-Claire was acquitted.

Les Lilas: places of clandestine abortions…

A bastion of feminism, the Lilas maternity ward counts among its ranks figures in the fight for women's rights. Among them, Jeanne Weiss, president of the Movement for Freedom from Abortion and Contraception (MLAC) and anesthesiologist-resuscitator in the establishment, but also Chantal Birman, (emblematic) midwife, also member of the MLAC.

Of the clandestine abortions were practiced there before the Veil law. “I clearly understood that women were going to have abortions no matter what happened and that it was just a question of 'do we want them to die or not'”, asks Chantal Birman during from an interview given to Léa Bordier in her series Our elders.

In an interview with Télérama, Joëlle Brunerie-Kauffmann, activist for the right to abortion and co-founder of MLAC, looks back on this period: “I then consulted at the Aubervilliers dispensary, with an extremely precarious population, and regularly women told me: “If you can do anything more for me, I’m going to put in a catheter this evening. » I still get chills telling you about it… It was such a slump, the Lilas clinic helped us out by welcoming them, even when they hadn't bled too much, and I was in total guilt. »

…and target of anti-abortion commandos

Once the Veil law was promulgated, maternity became the target of anti-abortion commandos. In 1990, it was the first French establishment to fall victim to commandos inspired by the American “pro-life” movement, as reported in Le Monde Diplomatique.

In May 1992, Xavier Dor, a Catholic pediatrician who was a staunch opponent of abortion and co-founder of the SOS tout-petits association, occupied the Lilas maternity ward. In the light of the according to Neiertz – named after the French MP Véronique Neiertz from the 9th constituency of Seine-Saint-Denis, who punishes obstruction of voluntary abortionthe pediatrician was sentenced to one month in prison and a fine of 5,000 francs.

Seine-Saint-Denis, a pioneering department in access to abortion

Under the leadership of Jacqueline de Chambrun, the first maternal and child protection center (PMI) in Seine-Saint-Denis was created in 1968. From 1970, she campaigned in favor of contraception and abortion and opened consultations with Family Planning.

Thanks to this tireless activist, planning centers have spread throughout the department, going “from nothing, since it was forbidden, to 90 possible planning centers in 20 years to have contraception and information on abortion”, relates Emmanuelle Piet, gynecologist at PMI in Saint-Saint-Denis since 1976.

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