Abortion in France still under attack

Abstract

A series of contradictory decisions by French law makers has damaged the countrys 20-year-old abortion act. Last Friday a joint legal committee of the Senate and National Assembly ruled that people convicted of antiabortion activities would not be eligible for the traditional amnesty granted after presidential elections. Usually the amnesty is restricted to people who have committed minor offenses such as car drivers who have failed to pay parking and speeding fines but it does include a category for It was this loophole that the Senate tried to exploit earlier this week by proposing that the National Assembly was wrong to exclude antiabortionists from the amnesty. The joint committee of the Senate and National Assembly defeated the proposed amendment by seven votes to four. France has also seen contradictions in the courts responses to antiabortion protestors. A Paris court acquitted protestors on the grounds that they were trying to protect a persons life while a court in Roanne gave a prison sentence to similar activists. The opposition to abortion in France largely comes from right wing parties. Recent polls show that 86% of French men and women are opposed to antiabortion protests in hospitals but that over 60% of them believe that womens rights to abortion are now threatened. (full text)