“The ‘343 manifesto’ has changed the way women listen to what women say”, considers Françoise Picq

Fifty days ago, (almost) to the day, April 5, 1971, The new observer published a manifesto, signed by 343 women, entitled “I got an abortion”, in favor of the right to abortion in France.

This Sunday, several decades later, 343 “women and people who could be pregnant” signed a column in the JDD to demand an extension of the time limits for resorting to voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) in France, beyond 12 weeks. Half a century later, what remains of this text? 20 minutes asked Françoise Picq, a feminist historian who participated in the Women’s Liberation Movement in 1970.

What is the “343 manifesto”? What was its impact?

The “343 manifesto” is the kick-off of a campaign which will be victorious and which will lead to the Veil law. This is the publication in April 1971 of a shock appeal from 343 women in favor of the right to abortion in France. This text, which is about ten lines long, will allow the signatories to declare that they have aborted, whereas at the time, it was prohibited by a law of 1920. It is even a crime at the beginning. In 1923, it became a crime. The impact was enormous in France, but also abroad. This text will go around the planet. It is necessary to realize what that represented as a stroke of brilliance. At the time, there was no Internet, it was a bomb.

The goal was to change the law. The law had to be clearly violated to force the state to react. And this campaign did not end with the manifesto. Then there is the manifesto of the 331 doctors, in 1973, saying that they performed abortions, that they were going to continue despite the ban. They were taking a much greater risk than the signatories of the “343 manifesto”. In 1974, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, who had just been elected, appointed Simone Veil Minister of Health. The Veil law, which decriminalizes abortion before the end of the tenth week, was passed at the end of December 1974 and promulgated in January 1975.

What remains of this manifesto in 2021?

There are many left. First of all, this number 343 is a magic number. Many manifestos have made use of it, including those of feminist movements, such as in 2007 with the “manifesto of 343 mums in the cities”, launched by “Neither putes, nor submissives”, or in 2012 with the manifesto launched by Clémentine Autain and 313 women proclaiming “I was raped”.

Is the right to abortion still fragile? Are we seeing a decline?

It is still fragile, there have been attempts to question it, especially on the part of Catholics, but I do not believe at all that it can be undermined, that a government would reverse this right, because the French are very attached to it. We are not at all in the situation of the United States or Poland. In France, the fundamental acceptance of public opinion makes it almost impossible to turn back the clock. The freedom to dispose of one’s body corresponds very deeply to the conception that the French have of freedom, of their relationship to sexuality, of their responsibilities. There have been more advances than setbacks. Moreover, each time the left has returned to power there have been progressions, and each time the right has returned to power, there have been attempts at regressions.

In 1982, when the left came back to power, there is the vote on the reimbursement of abortion. In 1993, there was the creation of the offense of obstructing abortion. In 2001, a law was adopted to extend the period from 10 to 12 weeks of pregnancy and exempt minors from the compulsory authorization of their parents. At the time, in the Veil law, the condition was distress. The pregnancy had to put the woman in a situation of distress so that she could have recourse to abortion. From now on, the condition is the will. A woman can have an abortion simply if she does not want to carry the pregnancy to term. This is freedom.

What does the new manifesto published today call for? Why ?

This new manifesto calls for an extension to 14 weeks of the period for abortion. In France, the current deadline is shorter than in many other countries. There are several thousand women who go out of time every year and have to go abroad or do it illegally. Moreover, during the first confinement in March, there were problems with the deadlines, some women had difficulty finding an appointment and exceeded the deadline.

Did this manifesto open up the liberation of women’s speech?

At the time, there were no social networks, you had to go through the press. Whether it was the manifesto or other events, it was necessary to pass “the media wall”, to be heard. It is therefore not the liberation of women’s voices that has changed with this manifesto, but listening to the voices of women. The manifesto broke the silence on this reality that women have shared for a long time. For the #Metoo movement, for example, it was the same phenomenon. This is something that has been experienced by all women and they denounce it.

The #Metoo movement is not a legacy of the “343 manifesto”, but it is in the continuity, it is a new stage. At the time, the theme was abortion, now it’s violence, but the mechanism is the same: the pooling of a demand that is becoming so important numerically and qualitatively that it makes things happen.