Patrick Laure continues his legal and philosophical series with part five of his column, examining the historical, religious and societal evolution of abortion and the recognition of voluntary termination of pregnancy as a fundamental right…
Philosophical context:
Life is inseparable from death, just as pregnancy is inseparable from abortion. Like the Eastern concept of yin and yang, and perhaps without knowing it, the term “will” (a feminine noun, which tends to manifest itself in an effective decision in accordance with an intention), which Simone Veil incorporated into her future law: “Voluntary Termination of Pregnancy”, naturally refers, like a Freudian slip, to Arthur Schopenhauer’s philosophical position in his major work, “The World as Will and Representation”, on the existential condition of humans and the world around them.
Will is the determining concept in Schopenhauer’s metaphysics, in that it designates the essence of man and of all things.
Will as a thing in itself is a blind and universal desire for life. It does not know, is not conscious, ignores space and time, cause, purpose, limits. The will, also known as the will to live, does not derive from the world; rather, the world derives from it. It is “the initial and unconditional,” “the premise of all premises.”
Thus, human will, in this case that of women, for they are the only ones concerned, opposes this will to “interrupt”, and interferes with the will of God, of the Gods, this spiritual will, which claims to be the only one with the right of life and death.
The refusal to grant women the right to abortion in the name of religion is the refusal of the will of those who exist, sacrificed on the altar of those who do not exist.
Historical evolution:
Abortion has a long history dating back to ancient times. In many ancient societies, methods of inducing abortion were already known, using herbs, potions or physical techniques. However, the perception of abortion has evolved over the centuries.
Ancient texts, such as the Code of Hammurabi, condemned abortion, but often for reasons related to property and lineage rather than the embryonic life itself.
The Code of Hammurabi, dating from around 1750 BC, prohibited abortion. In ancient Egypt, the Ebers Papyrus contains prescriptions for inducing abortion in women. Thus, since ancient times, politicians have attempted to control fertility. Abortion was strictly prosecuted among the Hebrews.
In the Middle Ages, with the rise of Christianity, abortion became increasingly repressed, although women continued to resort to it, often in dangerous conditions.
The vast majority of Christian churches strongly condemn abortion, but the punishment differs depending on whether the abortion is performed before or after the foetus is viable.
From the end of the 18th century in France and in the 19th century in other Western European countries, married women resorted to it more and more often in order to limit the size of their families. To do so, they turned to unqualified women, known as “angel makers” (see below), including “knitters” (because they used knitting needles to pierce the amniotic sac or open the cervix and induce a miscarriage).
Abortion in this context is still practised clandestinely, particularly through a procedure known as “dilatation and curettage”.
Nineteenth-century medicine saw advances in the fields of surgery, anaesthesia and hygiene. At the same time, doctors associated with the American Medical Association were lobbying for a ban on abortion in the United States, while terminations were increasingly punished, as evidenced in France by Article 317 of the Penal Code of 1810, which punished both the woman who had an abortion and the third party who performed it with imprisonment for one to five years, and by Articles 58 and 59 of the Offences against the Person Act of 1861, adopted by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which criminalised abortion.
The “punishment” inflicted on women:
To reiterate, for most of the 20th century, abortion was still carried out in moral agony (due, in particular, to religious prohibitions), financial (the procedure was not free, which posed a problem for those in need), and physical, as curettage was usually performed without anaesthesia, either because abortionists did not have access to it or because doctors chose to do without it in order to punish their patients.
This attitude is based on a desire to “teach them a lesson”, as noted by Dr Marie-Andrée Lagroua Weill-Hallé, which prompted her to make a statement to the Académie des sciences morales just before the launch of the happy motherhood campaign.
This repressive attitude is still evident in the 21st century, for example in Belgium in 2018, in the words of doctors who imply that this will make women “more careful next time” and “not do it again in the future.”
And yet…
– living in a rich country provides better access to sexual and reproductive healthcare the higher the income, the fewer unwanted pregnancies there are;
– abortion rates vary non-monotonically from one wealth group to another;
– when and where abortion is restricted, the proportion of unwanted pregnancies ending in abortion increases compared to the 1990-94 proportion, and the rate of unwanted pregnancies increases more than in countries where abortion is largely legal;
– over time (from 1990-94 to 2015-19), unwanted pregnancies tend to decrease worldwide, and unwanted pregnancies end more often in abortion than before. The global average abortion rate in 2015-2019 was therefore roughly equal to estimates for 1990-94.
– Women seek abortions even where abortion is restricted.
Conclusion on the brief history of abortion:
The Turnaway Study, based on a five-year follow-up of 1,000 women who sought abortions in the United States, compared the socio-economic effects and impact on women’s health depending on whether the abortion was accepted or refused.
The study concluded that there were “serious consequences for physical health during the continuation of pregnancy and during childbirth,” including death.
Women and their children also experienced greater economic and other difficulties when abortion was denied.
Women were more likely to continue to be exposed to intimate partner violence, less likely to have a planned pregnancy in better circumstances later on, and less likely to achieve their own aspirations.
The verdict is clear once again: denying women their fundamental right is to coerce them by proxy, in the name of a form of male tyranny.
France, abortion, religion and women
The France of Voltaire and Jules Ferry is the France of the White Fathers and the Lazarists, two great missionary orders. It is an evangelising power, the tricolour flag never far from the Vatican banners . Around 1900, half of the world’s Catholic missionaries were French. France is the youngest daughter of the Church.
On 5 April 1971, the newspaper Le Nouvel Observateur published a petition bearing 343 signatures from women declaring that they had had abortions.
Among them were many well-known figures such as Simone de Beauvoir, Catherine Deneuve, Jeanne Moreau, Françoise Sagan and Delphine Seyrig. They thus exposed themselves to legal proceedings.
“Bonjour tristesse” was written by Françoise Sagan, while Simone de Beauvoir had to write two volumes of her work ” The Second Sex” in an attempt to positively dismantle how “feminine reality” was constructed, why women were defined as the Other, and what the consequences were from the perspective of men.
She described the world as it is presented to women from their point of view, enabling us to understand the difficulties they encounter when, in attempting to escape the sphere that has been assigned to them until now, they seek to participate in human mitsein.
Human mitsein, or literally ‘being with’, because I am a woman, with you, a man, I am not ‘beside’ you; one of your ribs, removed to create Eve, despite what the Bible romanticises.
The Veil Law of 17 January 1975 decriminalised voluntary termination of pregnancy (VTP).
On 4 March 2024, Parliament, meeting in Congress at the Palace of Versailles, approved by 780 votes to 72 the bill to definitively enshrine abortion in the Constitution. France became the first country in the world to explicitly enshrine abortion in its Constitution.
• Religious rigidity still prevalent.
“A parishioner takes me by the hand, but I don’t want these people to take care of me, I’ve had enough, I think I’m going crazy.” (“Assez” Song by Niagara).
What does Islam say about abortion? Muslim religious authorities consider abortion to interfere with the will of Allah, who alone has the right of life and death.
The gods follow one another and resemble each other, not in a polytheistic sense, but between the Old Testament and the Koran. They are the same gods in that their primary will is to be the holders of the right of life and death.
Patrick LAURE
Secrétaire Particulier
+33 6 35 45 27 02
laurepatrick@wanadoo.fr
**The information provided in this article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. It is not intended to create an attorney-client relationship. Laws and regulations vary by jurisdiction and may change over time. Readers should consult a qualified legal professional for advice specific to their situation. The author and publisher are not responsible for any actions taken based on this information.