Christophe Hondelatte 3:19 p.m., July 28, 2020, modified at 7:25 p.m., July 28, 2020

ARCHIVES – Lawyer Gisèle Halimi died on Tuesday at the age of 93.

Feminist, engaged in politics, she made herself known to the general public in 1972 by defending a minor judged for having aborted following a rape.

In January 2020, she returned to the microphone of Christophe Hondelatte on this historic trial. 

ARCHIVES

Lawyer and former MP Gisèle Halimi died on Tuesday, the day after her 93rd birthday.

She had devoted her life to the cause of women and the right to abortion.

In 1972, she had thus defended a minor judged for having aborted following a rape.

She returned to this historic trial at the microphone of Christophe Hondelatte in January 2020. Europe 1 invites you to listen to the full version of this program again.

In 1972, the name of Gisèle Halimi made headlines.

Coming from a modest family from La Goulette in Tunisia, she was until then little known to the general public.

A lawyer engaged in politics, a feminist, she took charge that year of defending Marie-Claire Chevalier, a minor tried for having had an abortion after being raped.

At the bar, she calls prestigious witnesses.

"Of all these great witnesses, men and women, whom I put on the stand, the fairest was Simone de Beauvoir, the most effective was Professor Milliez. He was Catholic and against abortion", she recalled on Europe 1.

"I wanted people to say 'I had an abortion and it's a right'!"

Gisèle Halimi obtains the release of the young woman and manages to mobilize public opinion.

"Public opinion was ready. I wanted people to say 'I had an abortion and it's a right'!"

Founder in 1971 with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir of the association for the right to abortion "Choosing the cause of women", she was the same year one of the signatories of the famous manifesto of 343 women publicly saying they had aborted.

"It's a story that I experienced myself, an abortion with hemorrhage, in Tunisia. I felt how desperate it was. I understood that women who were not helped sometimes choose the suicide. It is still very difficult to express today. The laws have been changed, but mentalities resist.

Abortion will be decriminalized a few years later with the Veil law, passed in 1975. Elected MP for Isère (PS related) in 1981, Gisèle Halimi will continue her fight in the Assembly, this time for the reimbursement of the termination of pregnancy (IVG), finally voted in 1982.