Manifesto of three hundred and forty-three ( French Manifeste des 343 ) - an open letter published on April 5, 1971 in the French journal Le Nouvel Observateur , compiled by Simone de Beauvoir and signed by another 342 women. The signatories demanded the decriminalization of abortion , which at that time was criminally punished in France, and admitted that they themselves had an abortion.
As of 1971, a 1920 law was in effect in France, according to which abortion was related to crimes, tribunal correctionnel , and the usual punishment for abortion was from three to four years in prison (during the Vichy regime, abortions could be punished under certain conditions death penalty, but after the liberation of France, the previous law was returned) [1] . Moreover, in France, the annual number of clandestine abortions was estimated at least 300-400 thousand per year. Wealthy French women went to have an abortion abroad, for example, in the UK, where abortion was allowed in 1967 [2] .
The first paragraph of the manifesto read: “In France, one million women a year have abortions. Being doomed to secrecy, they make them in dangerous conditions, although under medical supervision this is the simplest procedure. We gag these millions of women. I declare that I am one of them. I declare that I had an abortion. Just as we demand free access to contraception, we demand the right to abortion. ”
In the next issue, the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo published a caricature of Kabyu with the caption: “Who got pregnant with all 343 whores from the manifesto for abortion?” ( Qui a engrossé les 343 salopes du manifeste sur l'avortement? ), Which made fun of male politicians; the manifesto almost immediately received the second name "Manifesto 343 whores" ( fr. Manifeste des 343 salopes ) [3] . In the following years, several major actions were held in France for decriminalizing abortion, and in February 1973, a similar open letter was issued by 331 doctors who admitted to making clandestine abortions [4] . In 1975, a law came into force that legalized abortion, also known by the name of Minister of Health Simone Weil .
In 1972, the American feminist magazine Ms. in his first issue he published a similar letter signed, including, by Anais Nin , Billy Jean King and Nora Efron . This happened a year before the US Supreme Court legalized abortion throughout the United States with the Row vs. Wade judgment [5] .
Famous Signatories
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Notes
- ↑ Diamond, H. Women and the Second World War in France, 1939-1948: Choices and Constraints. - Routledge, 2015 .-- 248 p. - ISBN 9781317885436 .
- ↑ Herzog, D. Sexuality in Europe: A Twentieth-Century History. - Cambridge University Press, 2011 .-- P. 156. - ISBN 9781139500739 .
- ↑ Reineke, S. Beauvoir and Her Sisters: The Politics of Women's Bodies in France. - University of Illinois Press, 2011 .-- P. 78. - 144 p. - ISBN 9780252093227 .
- ↑ Herzog, D. Sexuality in Europe: A Twentieth-Century History. - Cambridge University Press, 2011 .-- P. 157. - ISBN 9781139500739 .
- ↑ Squires, B. Famous Women in History and Their Less Famous Abortions . Vice (September 16, 2016). Date of treatment March 8, 2017.