France exonerates all women penalized for abortion before its legalization 

On December 18, France’s parliament passed a bill exonerating women who had been penalized for abortion before its legalization in 1975. Pro-abortion organizations have celebrated that bill as a triumph for “reproductive rights."

Key Takeaways:

• French lawmakers have passed a bill to exonerate women who were penalized for illegal abortions before the nation's 1975 law legalized the procedure.

• The bill claims that protecting preborn babies from abortion had been "an infringement" on women's health.

• While pro-life laws in the U.S. do not penalize women, that does not mean abortion is morally acceptable.

The Details:

The National Assembly, the lower chamber of the French Parliament, voted in favor of the bill this month, following the Senate's approval in March. The bill claims that "criminalising the use of, practice of, access to, and information about abortion" was "an infringement of the protection of women's health, of sexual and reproductive autonomy," as well as "of women's rights."

The bill formally absolves women who were punished under pre-1975 laws that protected preborn children from abortion. According to reports, over 11,600 individuals were convicted between 1870 and the mid-1970s for either seeking out or aiding in abortions.

"France is sending a clear message, at home and abroad: no one should ever be convicted for having an abortion," the pro-abortion Women's Foundation said in response to the recent vote. 

France is the first country to make the killing of preborn humans a constitutional right

Likewise, Aurore Berge, the pro-abortion minister-delegate for gender equality, lauded the decision as “an act of justice toward those thousands of lives shattered by unjust laws."

“We have a responsibility to make amends, but above all we have a duty to sound the alarm,” she added.

Although the new law does not include financial reparations, it seeks to create a commission charged with gathering, preserving, and sharing the recollections of women who underwent secret abortions, along with those who supported them.  

Moreover, French lawmakers hailed Claudine Monteil, one of the 343 women who, in 1971, conceded she had sought an abortion and then pushed for its legalization. Monteil was present at the French parliament to witness the vote. 

The Bottom Line:

New pro-life laws in the U.S. do not penalize women who undergo abortions, even in states where abortion is illegal. However, exonerating women for abortions that took place decades and even a century ago does not mean abortion is acceptable or moral. Pro-life laws do not exist to punish women, many of whom have been pressured into abortion by external factors, but to protect preborn children from abortion and to protect women from the trauma associated with ending the lives of their preborn children.