Rallies each bringing together several hundred demonstrators took place in France on Saturday July 2 to defend the right to abortion and provide support to American women, after the decision of the Supreme Court to annul what many considered to be a given.

At the head of the Parisian procession, Suzy Rojtman, member of the collective "Abortion in Europe - Women decide", evokes a "shock wave".

She fears that given "the importance of the United States in the world", the right to abortion is regressing "everywhere" and that "countries are inspired by the United States to deny this fundamental right".

Still in Paris, where some 1,500 people marched according to the Ministry of the Interior, a 16-year-old girl, Thaïs, brandished a sign "130 abortion centers have closed in 15 years" (in France, editor's note).

She worries about a "snowball effect". 

"From New York to Paris, free and free abortion"

The Supreme Court of the United States ended on June 24 the federal legal guarantee of abortion in all the country.

It is now up to the 50 states to decide on abortion.

Half of them, according to the Guttmacher Institute, (especially in the south and center) have already banned it or are considering doing so.

Hangers painted red at arm's length, the demonstrators - including men and many very young women - marched singing "From New York to Paris, free and free abortion" or "The abortion, we fought to win it, we will fight to keep it".

"The abortion saves lives", "Keep your laws off my body" (Take your laws off my body), "Leave the women alone for once", could we read on the placards of the participants.

Many were written in English.

And also "We want abortion in the Constitution", in reference to the bills to include this right in the French Constitution.

Organized at the call of the collective "Abortion in Europe - Women decide", joined by many feminist associations, unions and political parties, around thirty demonstrations brought together a total of some 6,500 people in France, according to the ministry. inside.

In Bordeaux, the rally also numbered a few hundred people (400 according to the police, a thousand according to the organizers).

"It's not just the right to abortion but the right to freely dispose of our bodies. It's a fundamental right, which does not only concern France but women all over the world", declares Johanna Tilché-Jean , "artist and mother".

In Strasbourg, more than 300 people, according to the prefecture, took the direction of the American consulate.

And in Toulouse, a few dozen people, especially women, gathered under the slogan "We are proud, women, radical and angry!". 

In Marseille, demonstrators joined the Pride March which brought together 12,000 people according to the prefecture.

A regular at Pride, Philippe Murcia, 48, said he was "very worried to see a divided society, like in the United States, which is now attacking women's rights, rights that we thought were acquired" . 

With AFP

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