Veil Act Explained

The Loi Veil, officially the "Law of 17 January 1975 on the voluntary termination of pregnancy", is a law pertaining to the decriminalization of abortion in France. It was prepared by Simone Veil, minister of health during the presidency of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.

The law was promulgated on 17 January 1975, with a duration of five years. It was renewed without time limit by a law passed on 31 December 1979.

Background

The vote was preceded by various episodes related directly and indirectly to the ban on abortion, such as the legalization of contraception (1967), the Manifesto of the 343 (1971), the (1972), and the (1973). After the Bobigny trial, the minister of justice instructed the Ministère public to cease prosecuting abortion.

An early law decriminalizing abortion was tabled under the presidency of Georges Pompidou (1969–1974).

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing promised to decriminalize abortion during his presidential campaign in 1974. As Minister of Justice, it fell to Jean Lecanuet to defend the law in Parliament, but he refused on grounds of personal ethics. Therefore, Minister of Health Simone Veil was charged with preparing the law soon after the election. She brought the law before the National Assembly on 26 November 1974, declaring in her speech:

The vote was the object of heated, sometimes vicious, debate. Jean Foyer, who led the opposition to the law, declared in his response:

After some 25 hours of intense debate by 74 speakers, the law was finally adopted by the Assembly on 29 November 1974 at 3:40 am, by a vote of 284 in favour and 189 against, thanks to the near-unanimous support from the parties of the left and the centre, against the objection of the majority, but not the entirety, of the members on the right, led by Jean Foyer (UDR), and including Simone Veil's own party.

The law was promulgated on 17 January. It was initially in force for a five-year period, on an experimental basis. It was renewed without time limit by law n°79-1204 on 31 December 1979.^{[1] [2]}

Content

The Loi Veil decriminalized voluntary termination of pregnancy before the end of the tenth week of gestation, with certain conditions:

• situation of distress;
• pregnancy of equal to or less than 10 weeks (12 weeks of amenorrhea);
• intervention performed by a doctor in a hospital setting;
• mandatory information and reflection procedures: two medical consultations (with a delay for reflection between the two) in which the risks and alternatives are presented by the doctors, and a psycho-social consultation;
• consent confirmed in writing;
• doctors and other health care personnel covered by a conscience clause, such that no one is required to terminate a pregnancy if they hold ethical objections.

The law also legalized voluntary termination of pregnancy for therapeutic reasons, which could be practiced under certain conditions:

• serious danger to the health of the woman, or strong probability that the unborn child would suffer from a particularly serious condition recognized as incurable at the time of diagnosis, as attested by two doctors;
• no delay, and performable until the last day of the pregnancy;
• intervention performed by a doctor in a hospital setting;
• doctors and other health care personnel covered by a conscience clause, such that no one is required to terminate a pregnancy if they hold ethical objections.

Sources

• Simone Veil, une loi au nom des femmes (2010), documentary by Valérie Manns and Richard Puech, broadcast 4 March 2010 on France 2. (watch online on DailyMotion)

External links

• Loi Veil on the National Assembly website

Notes and References

1. http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexteArticle.do;jsessionid=7AA88B232E2982CAAC9AAE6F799DCF5F.tpdjo02v_1?idArticle=LEGIARTI000006695557&cidTexte=LEGITEXT000006068506&dateTexte=20130913 Loi du 17 janvier 1975, article 2
2. Magali Mazuy. Laurent Toulemon. Élodie Baril. 2014. Le nombre d'IVG est stable, mais moins de femmes y ont recours. Population. 3 . fr. 365–398. 10.3917/popu.1403.0365.