Did Simone Veil say that abortion is "not a trivial matter"?

Simone Veil at the National Assembly, December 13, 1974. (illustration) -

• "Simone Veil herself has always said that the act of abortion was not trivial".

• In the midst of a political debate on the extension of the legal deadline for abortion from 12 to 14 weeks, Aurélien Pradié, Secretary General of the Republicans, lent these words, during his visit to Franceinfo, to the initiator of the decriminalization law of abortion.

• If Simone Veil has made similar remarks, the interpretation he makes of them a little quickly forgets their context. 

Should the legal period for voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) be extended from 12 to 14 weeks?

While the deputies adopted, on October 8, in first reading, a bill in this direction, the question divides in the political world.

Aurélien Pradié, secretary general of the Les Républicains (LR) party thus confided, during his visit to Franceinfo on Tuesday, October 14, his concern about a "form of trivialization of this act for women".

A fear that would, according to him, be in line with the reservations expressed by the Minister of Health who allowed the adoption of the law decriminalizing abortion in 1975, Simone Veil, at a time when abortion was practiced clandestinely.

🗣️ Extension of the legal deadline for abortion: "Simone Veil has always said that the act of abortion was not trivial", assures Aurélien Pradié, opposed to the extension.

"I think we have all the means to protect these women"

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“Simone Veil is one of the political totems for me and I have no complex in saying that the Veil law is one of the most beautiful and greatest laws of the Republic.

Moreover, it is one of the most striking laws to protect women since it was about that at the time.

And Simone Veil herself has always said that the act of abortion was not trivial, ”said Aurélien Pradié on Franceinfo.

Even if it means quickly citing the words of this great feminist figure, who died in 2017.

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In her most famous speech, delivered on November 26, 1974 to the National Assembly to defend her bill to decriminalize abortion, Simone Veil had indeed recalled the singular nature of such a practice: "The two interviews that she [the woman seeking to perform an abortion] will have had, as well as the eight-day reflection period that will be imposed on her, seemed essential to make the woman aware that it is not a normal or banal act, but a serious decision which cannot be taken without having weighed the consequences and which should be avoided at all costs.

"

She therefore emphasized, on this occasion, that the practice was "not trivial".

"She wanted to say that the abortion is not nothing for a woman, that it is an important act, but also that any woman has the right to access the abortion because her body belongs to her", nuance near

Jocelyne Sauvard, author of the biography

(editions of L'Archipel).

“She had a clear position in her 1974 speech and in all subsequent ones.

No one can say that abortion is trivial, it involves making a choice, but it is also physical and moral suffering.

Simone Veil has always maintained it, ”adds the author.

A speech held in a "perspective of necessary concession"

The words of the Minister of Health are also to be placed in the context of the time, as explained to

Florence Rochefort, historian, researcher at CNRS and co-author of the book

(with Bibia Pavard and Michelle Zancarini-Fournel, published by Armand Colin): “Simone Veil emphasized that abortion was not a trivial act during a speech given in a world political majority male and rather reactionary on the questions of morals, in a perspective of necessary concession at this given moment, which does not need any more to be today and which it would not have any more to make today.

"

"The meaning of the Veil law, 45 years ago, was to give enough guarantees to anti-abortion to ensure that the law passes, therefore making concessions - such as the conscience clause, which is no longer justified. today - in a context of great reluctance on the subject.

It's specious to put something in Simone Veil's mouth that she wouldn't say today, ”laments the researcher.

And to add: "Aurélien Pradié's assertion is very out of step with the reality of Simone Veil's vision on abortion: refusing the banality consists precisely in not reducing this subject to a simple question of protection of women when it was and still is fundamentally a question of their freedom and their right to abortion already [at the time] ”.

Simone Veil herself recognized, during her speech, the government's primary objective: "to make a law really applicable".

Then, in the order: “make a dissuasive law;

make a protective law.

"

Not without recalling the difficulty of resorting to abortion for women, in a phrase that has marked the spirits: "I would first of all like to share with you a woman's conviction - I apologize for doing so in front of this Assembly almost exclusively. composed of men: no woman has recourse with a gaiety of heart to abortion.

"

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