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IVG in the Constitution: two signatories of the manifesto of 343 testify
IVG in the Constitution: two signatories of the manifesto of 343 testify
(France 2)
The activists Claudine Monteil and Anne Zelensky agreed to return, in the 20 Hours of Friday March 8, on the path traveled since the manifesto of the 343, which they signed in 1971, until the inclusion of abortion in the Constitution.
Processions of support marched in France for International Women’s Rights Day, Friday March 8, which began with the sealing in the Constitution of the freedom to resort to voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion). Two of the 343 women who signed a manifesto in 1971, declaring that they had had recourse to abortion, testify in the 20 Heures. One was the youngest of the signatories, the other, the most experienced in activism.
“We are not going to imprison 343 women”
Claudine Monteil, 74, was just 21 when she participated in this column, published in a newspaper that she kept. “Our urgency was already that we say the word ‘abortion’ in public. It was a taboo word”she remembers.
At 88 years old, Anne Zelensky, founder of the Women’s Liberation Movement (MLF), remembers thinking about this action with Simone de Beauvoir. “We are not going to imprison 343 women, (…) we have carefully considered the matter”, she remembers. 53 years later, the inclusion of abortion in the Constitution is also a bit of their victory.
