Simone Veil

Abstract

Former French Health Minister and architect of the law legalising abortion in France. Born in Nice, France, on July 13, 1927, she died at home in Paris, France, on June 30, 2017, aged 89 years. “I forgive you for having poured water over my head”, might seem an unlikely accolade from a 69-year-old man when paying tribute to his mother at an official ceremony with full state honours. But this is exactly what happened when Simone Veil's eldest son Jean Veil took the podium on July 5 at Les Invalides, where Napoleon lies, shortly before French President Emmanuel Macron spoke in homage to one of France's modern-day heroes. Praising her strong character, Jean recalled the occasion when his mother emptied a carafe of water over his head in disgust at what she considered to be his misogynist remarks. That same strong character and deep convictions no doubt helped Veil through her time in the Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen during World War 2, maintained her unswerving defence of women's rights, and armed her against some angry male colleagues in parliament when she pushed through a 1975 law to legalise abortion in France, known as the Loi Veil (Veil law). After qualifying as a judge, Veil served as Minister of Health twice, first under centrist President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing from 1974 to 1979 and then under socialist President François Mitterrand's right-wing government led by Prime Minister Edouard Balladur from 1993 to 1995. An ardent European, Veil was also the first woman President of the first directly elected European Parliament from 1979 to 1982. As Minister of Health, Veil fought resolutely to legalise abortion in France. In the early 1970s, “male doctors would sometimes perform curettages without an anaesthetic after illegal abortions to teach the women a lesson”, explains Anne Gompel, Head of Gynaecology Endocrinology at Cochin Hospital in Paris and Outstanding Professor at Paris Descartes University who was completing her medical studies at the University Hospital Pitié-Salpêtrière in Paris when the abortion law was passed. “Those women were the ones who survived, as hundreds died from backstreet abortions before they reached hospital.” But that fact did not impress the male-dominated French parliament. “The violence of the debate was incredible, but Simone Veil remained calm and dignified throughout. Without her, it would probably have taken another 10 years or so to legalise abortion in France”, Gompel says. At that time, Veil wrote in her 2007 autobiography Une Vie (A Life), she wondered whether men preferred abortion over contraception because it still gave them control over women's bodies. Her reasoned arguments and cool head were certainly tested on a number of occasions. As the parliamentary debate on the abortion bill approached, she recalled “virulent attacks”, with swastikas plastered on the apartment building where she lived, insults in the street, and women reciting the rosary in front of the National Assembly. Agnès Buzyn, who was appointed Minister for Solidarity and Health after Emmanuel Macron was elected French President on May 7, 2017, knew Veil well because she was married to Veil's third son, Pierre-François Veil, for about a decade. “As Minister, Simone Veil never wavered from her values and beliefs”, Buzyn says. “Apart from her fight to legalise abortion in 1975, she introduced a number of measures to help mothers of young children, the disabled, and HIV-positive patients in the mid-1990s. She always defended the general interests of society, particularly the most vulnerable among us, and will always remain a great inspiration to me. As Health Minister, it is a great honour to follow in her footsteps.” A particularly memorable occasion for Gompel occurred in 1994 before antiretroviral treatment for HIV was available. Veil was due to give a television interview about AIDS and insisted on visiting a patient first. “She was so upset by the condition of the man, who died soon afterwards, that she left the room in tears and cancelled the interview”, Gompel recalls. Veil also convinced her colleagues to introduce a ban on smoking in certain public places in 1976, and tried to remedy the problem of medically underserved rural areas—an issue that is one of Macron's health priorities. Veil's autobiography says she reveals herself as “free, vehement, serene”. She is survived by two of her three sons, Jean and Pierre-François. Her second son Claude-Nicolas died in 2002. Veil will be buried with her husband Antoine, who died in 2013, in the Panthéon mausoleum, only the fifth woman to accompany the other heroes of France who are laid to rest there.