about thirty personalities ask for the creation of a specific leave in a tribune

“We want our daughters and granddaughters to be able to have abortions without shame or loss of pay.” About thirty people, including lawyers, journalists and feminists, signed, on Saturday April 29, a forum published on the website of the Sunday newspaper to call for the creation of leave in the event of voluntary termination of pregnancy. Among the 32 signatories are notably Elise Goldfarb and Julia Layani, creators of the podcast Coming out, or the filmmaker Radu Mihaileanu.

The signatories recall that the social partners of the Syntec branch (digital and consulting) have signed an agreement providing for two days’ leave in the event of miscarriage, and that the Carrefour group has granted three days to its employees for the same reason, allowing to women affected by “not to be financially penalized by the loss of salary implied by the taking of sick leave, by circumventing the period of three unpaid waiting days”.

“But what about voluntary termination of pregnancy, for which there is still no dedicated leave?”ask the signatories, who believe that “In the collective unconscious, nearly fifty years after its legalization, abortion still resonates as a subversive act evoking unbridled sexuality or anarchic management of one’s fertility, in a society that expects women to be organized and cautious”. “Thus designed, the abortion process retains a taste of the illicit in labor law, even though it concerns one in three women”, specify these thirty people. For them, “dedicated leave would legitimize and affirm this fundamental right which is still exercised clandestinely today vis-à-vis the professional sphere”.