The wind of protest has crossed the Atlantic.
Several hundred people demonstrated this Saturday in Paris, Bordeaux and Toulouse "for the defense of the right to abortion", in reaction to the questioning of abortion by the conservative Supreme Court of the United States.
The highest American court ended, on June 24, the federal legal guarantee of abortion in all countries.
It is now up to the 50 states to decide on abortion.
Organized at the call of the collective "Abortion in Europe - Women decide", joined by many feminist associations, unions and political parties, several demonstrations were planned across France.
“A shock wave”
Evoking a "shock wave", Suzy Rojtman, member of the collective, fears that given "the importance of the United States in the world", the right to abortion is regressing "everywhere" and that "countries inspire the United States to deny this fundamental right”.
In the Parisian crowd, a 16-year-old girl, Thaïs, held up a sign “130 abortion centers have closed in 15 years” (in France, editor’s note).
She worries about a “snowball effect”.
Demonstrations in Paris and throughout France at the call of the Collective "women decide" including Dare Feminism!
is part.
For the right to abortion everywhere in the world!
For the right to #abortion in the constitution!
#IVGdanslaConstitution pic.twitter.com/Vp8T8GEZA8
— Dare feminism!
(@osezlefeminisme) July 2, 2022
Brandishing hangers painted red, the demonstrators - including men and many very young women - marched singing "From New York to Paris, free and free abortion" or "The abortion, we fought to win it, we will fight to keep it”.
"Abortion saves lives", "Keep your laws off my body", "Leave women alone for once", "A right without means is not a right", could -we read on the placards of the participants.
Many were written in English.
“French law on abortion has always been fragile”
In Bordeaux, the rally also numbered a few hundred people (400 according to the police, a thousand according to the organizers).
Beginning of the rally in Bordeaux this Saturday in solidarity with the mobilizations in the United States and for the right to abortion!
Several hundred people gathered in a combative atmosphere!
The collective @Pain_Et_Roses on the initiative is present!
pic.twitter.com/BnVGE7nEEO
— Permanent Revolution Bordeaux (@RevPermanente33) July 2, 2022
“It's not just the right to abortion but the right to freely dispose of our bodies.
It is a fundamental right, which does not only concern France but women all over the world”, notably estimated Johanna Tilché-Jean, “artist and mother”.
For Nicole Blet, retired nurse and member of Family Planning in Gironde, "the law (in France Editor's note) on abortion has always been fragile", just like "its application".
In Toulouse – where a parallel LGBT + pride march was held – a few dozen people, especially women, gathered under the slogan “We are proud, women, radicals and angry!
".
“In France, we are not outside the world.
You have to be careful, ”said Sandra Cassagnaud, 49.
French women "have more and more difficulty" in being taken care of for an abortion.
