“Besides mothers”: the forgotten scandal of forced abortions in Reunion

In 2017, political scientist Françoise Vergès returned, in the women's belly, on the scandal of Reunion Island women, aborted without their consent in the 1960s and 1970s. While the MLF campaigned in mainland France for the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy and free access to it, on the island, doctors unwittingly sterilized expectant mothers, often poor, in a completely arbitrary and racist manner. .

Their medical procedures were even reimbursed by Social Security, disguised as appendicitis or urgent intervention, without ever being denounced by the institutions. The idea of ​​a parliamentary commission of inquiry was launched in 2018, but quickly fell into oblivion.

A plea against patriarchy and colonialism

Will this graphic novel succeed in remobilizing our deputies? Sophie Adriansen and Anjale (who herself grew up in Reunion) hope so. Their well-documented opus combines two stories in parallel, two battles fought at the same time but 9,000 kilometers apart. That of a Parisian student who fights for her body to belong to her and signs the “Manifesto of the 343” of the New Observer.

And that of a mother from Reunion, crossing paths with abortion doctors and the clinic of Doctor Moreau, close to Michel Debré, the former prime minister of General de Gaulle, and then an influential leader of the Reunion right. This same politician advocated the adoption of Reunionese children in Creuse, to limit the demographics in this overseas region. With a round stroke served by a sharp scenario, the authors nourish an uncompromising plea on this colonial and patriarchal horror.

Besides mothersby Sophie Adriansen and Anjale, eds. Vuibert, 208 pages, 24.90 euros