WORLD WORLDWIDE FRANCE News Journal Update - (en) France, OCL CA #337 - The right to abortion, an incessant feminist fight (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Access to voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) or maintaining
this access have, in recent years, been at the heart of numerous
feminist mobilizations around the world. We have seen this in Latin
America, in Poland... and now in the United States. Nothing surprising
in this, since women claim through this means and that of contraception
the right to give birth or not according to their choice, while the
supporters of the capitalist and patriarchal system continue to want to
control their sexuality and use their procreative capacities for
political, economic or military purposes.

On June 24, 2022, we could read in the French press findings such as:
"Access to abortion remains very unequal around the world (1). While one
in four pregnancies ends in abortion, more than 40% of women of
childbearing age live in states with restrictive laws.»
On June 24, 2022, in fact, the Supreme Court in the United States buried
the so-called Roe vs Wade decision (dating from 1973), on which a right
to abortion was based which applied to the entire country. Since the
Dobbs ruling, each state in the Union can adopt its own legislation on
this issue, and therefore possibly decide to make abortion illegal.
Such a change has therefore highlighted the fragility of access to
abortion, and sparked many media reports on it.
Certainly, a number of states have legalized abortion in recent years:
Ireland in 2018, New Zealand and Argentina in 2020, Thailand in 2021,
Colombia and Benin in 2022, Mexico in 2023... Only around twenty
countries still completely prohibit it - especially in Africa (for
example Egypt, Senegal, Madagascar or Mauritania) and in Latin America
(Suriname, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, etc.) . In Europe, abortion
is completely prohibited only in Malta, Andorra and the Vatican.
But the decision of the US Supreme Court was all the more striking
because it echoed another fairly recent one, taken by the Constitutional
Court in Poland in October 2020. Abortion then became almost illegal in
this country. country, because this high authority (closely controlled
by the conservative party PiS) removed the possibility of resorting to
it in the event of fetal malformation. Abortion remains authorized in
cases of rape, incest, or if the pregnancy presents a danger to the
mother... but malformation of the fetus was the criterion used for more
than 95% of the 1,000 legal abortions performed each year in Poland.
Over the last two decades, around fifty states around the world have
made their legislation less restrictive regarding abortion, but in some
the criteria which authorize the act remain few. Thus, a woman's life
must be in danger in Ivory Coast, Libya, South Sudan, Iraq, Lebanon,
Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, Bangladesh, Burma, Guatemala ... And, in
Brazil or Chile, the pregnancy must be linked to rape, be at risk for
the mother or the fetus must have a serious malformation.
And then, in a state like Italy, abortion is made very difficult to
access by the conscientious objection that gynecologists very often use:
in 2019, according to the Ministry of Health, 67% of they refused to
perform an abortion there.
Finally, in other countries where abortion is legalized, the cost of the
medical procedure, distorted preliminary interviews or compulsory
waiting periods constitute all obstacles to its implementation.

Winning the right to abortion, an issue for women
Access to abortion is an old feminist fight of international importance
because, with access to contraception, it helps women to have control
over their bodies, and because the approximately 25 million "Dangerous
abortions (2)" practiced every year on Earth - mainly in developing
countries (3) - make it the third cause of maternal mortality. Women who
abort in such conditions generally do not have the means to travel
abroad or seek treatment in a private establishment.
Also the feminist coordinations which have emerged in many countries
over the last eight years, in the wake of the Argentine movement Ni Una
Menos ("Not one less"), are mainly mobilized on both access against
abortion and against violence against women.
The choice to make September 28 the Day for the Right to Abortion for
Women in Latin America and the Caribbean dates back to 1990 (it was made
during the fifth Latin American Feminist Meetings).
As for the feminist coordination called Czarny Protest ("Black
Protest"), it appeared in Poland in 2016: on October 3 (called "Black
Monday") of that year, between 100,000 and 200,000 women went on strike
and demonstrated in 147 cities against the restriction of the right to
abortion sought by the government. This mobilization continued in the
following years, and especially after abortion was declared
unconstitutional: 430,000 people demonstrated in 410 cities on October
28, 2020, and 100,000 during the Great March to Warsaw on the 30th. , to
denounce the power, but also the Catholic hierarchy, particularly
powerful and reactionary in Poland. And, because it attacked patriarchal
institutions by demanding both a secular state and the suppression of
religious education in schools, Czarny Protest faced fierce repression (4).
Since then, informal abortion support networks have multiplied in
Poland, feminist NGOs are overwhelmed by requests (5), and the Czech
Republic has become a very frequent destination for abortion, due to the
fact that the cost of abortion The act is quite moderate (the equivalent
of EUR420 on average). However, surveys of the Polish population
indicate that two-thirds of them are now in favor of legalizing abortion
up to the twelfth week of pregnancy.

Banning the right to abortion, a challenge for those in power
The demographic situation of a country can lead its leaders to consider
the right to abortion for women as an annoying obstacle in relation to
their economic or even military objectives; it can encourage them to
limit it, or even make it disappear - just like contraception or other
measures curbing their current pronatalist policies (see box). And, of
course, the capitalist and patriarchal system needs generational renewal
in order to satisfy its labor needs for its gigantic global market.
In Russia, the speeches that leaders have been making on the family
since last fall are enlightening (6). To encourage women to leave the
work they do outside the home and to have children, because the
population is decreasing (7), they highlight Russian "traditional
values", but also attack the right to 'Abortion.
This right, which was acquired in 1920, has been maintained until now,
despite some temporary prohibitions. But last summer the Minister of
Health, Mikhail Mourashko, spoke of "a perverse trend (...) according to
which women should first receive an education, have a career and ensure
their material well-being before 'taking care of having children' - and
he called for stricter control over the sale of molecules allowing
medical abortions to be carried out. At the beginning of November, it
was Vladimir Putin himself who, during a meeting with members of "civil
society", mentioned abortion as "an acute problem" in relation to the
demographic situation - which is a central theme for him since he came
to power in 2000.
The Duma health committee, immediately afterwards, adopted
recommendations aimed at restricting the right to abortion: reduction of
the legal period from twelve to eight weeks; consent required from
husband if woman is married; extension of the mandatory reflection
period, with the equally obligatory condition of "listening to the fetal
heartbeat"...
The regions of Mordovia, Tver and Kaliningrad have banned "incitement to
abortion" and have made liable to fines; and the Federation Council, the
upper house of the Russian Parliament, proposed that a law extend the
measure to the entire country.
In other regions (such as Crimea), dozens of private clinics have given
up "on their own" - according to the authorities - from performing
abortions to "make their contribution to the demographic edifice". The
President of the Duma immediately tabled a bill which, if passed, would
oblige all private clinics on Russian territory to do the same. And,
according to testimonies from pregnant women, doctors in public
hospitals are increasingly seeking to dissuade women from having an
abortion.
Of course, the war in Ukraine undoubtedly contributes to worsening the
demographic situation, by sending millions of men of childbearing age to
the front or into exile; but it is also the defense of the homeland
which incites the Russian power to attack the right to abortion.
According to Le Monde, posters from an Orthodox foundation can be found
in several Russian cities on which a fetus (sic!) says to a soldier:
"Defend me now, I will defend you later.» Various personalities are
playing this "family-fatherland" card - and MP Valery Seleznev proposed,
in mid-November, that imprisoned women could have special permission to
procreate... with the key being their release if they become pregnant.

Access to abortion as an electoral asset
As the November 2024 presidential election in the United States looms,
the suppression of the constitutional right to abortion clearly divides
the Republican and Democratic camps. Because the Republican candidates
promise to further restrict this right, while the Democratic candidates
have made it their hobby horse, after noting that it constitutes the
first criterion of choice in this election for a growing part of the
electorate (8).
It must be said that the possibility of abortion in the United States
has deteriorated significantly: 14 states out of 50 have to date
completely abolished the right to abortion; 6 others radically restrict
it, often from six weeks of pregnancy. And the Supreme Court, with a
conservative majority, must decide before June 2024 on the subject of
the abortion pill, which is used for more than half of abortions and
whose prescription had been made easier in recent years (9).
Most of the local American decision-makers who, for the past year, have
sought to completely ban access to abortion are men from the Republican
Party (1,300 out of just under 1,600); but two thirds of the population
are in favor of maintaining this right, and women are particularly
determined to defend it with their vote. Since the Roe vs. Wade
decision, the Republicans have lost in every election where access to
abortion has been a question; the Democratic Party takes advantage of
it, aware that this issue acts like a slow poison on the Republican
Party by delivering it to its most extremist current. We also see
Democratic figures advocating the adoption at the federal level of a law
guaranteeing the right to abortion - like the 13 states (including
Ohio[10]) and the District of Columbia which do so. did at their level.

President Macron therefore hardly innovated when he announced in France,
on October 29, 2023, that a draft constitutional law aimed at protecting
abortion would be presented to the Council of Ministers before the end
of 2023 (11).
Macron committed on March 8, 2022, during the "controversial" tribute to
Gisèle Halimi, to "change our Constitution in order to enshrine the
freedom of women to resort to voluntary termination of pregnancy". Then
the Chamber of Deputies voted by an overwhelming majority, in November,
for a bill "constitutionalizing" abortion; and, in February 2023, the
Senate approved this proposal by a narrow majority, but after replacing
the "right" of women to resort to abortion with the word "freedom".
To bring this constitutional revision to fruition, Macron chose the path
of the two Chambers meeting in Congress in Versailles (this Congress
being scheduled for March 5, according to the former Minister of
Solidarity and Families Combe), rather than that of the referendum: he
wants to avoid offering a platform to opponents of abortion (12) and
thinks it will be easier to win with this process. The constitutional
revision must, however, be approved by three-fifths of parliamentarians.
However, if in the National Assembly the presidential majority and the
left should logically support it, in the Senate it is less obvious since
the LR group is in the majority there... and then the position of the
National Rally remains unknown. Marine Le Pen is so unsure of her troops
that she ended up presenting an amendment in her name alone, which
defends... the current law on abortion that she previously contested (13).
Furthermore, during his press conference on January 16, 2024, Macron
promised a "major fight plan" against "male and female" infertility
(describing it as a "scourge" and "taboo of the century") in the
perspective of a "demographic rearmament" of France, whose birth rate is
falling.

The evolution of government decisions or speeches concerning abortion,
here and there, highlights, as we can see, a reality: this hard-won
right is no more acquired than any other. We must therefore continue to
mobilize everywhere to defend it.

Vanina

Notes
1. "Right to abortion: in which countries is it prohibited, restricted
or threatened?"», Le Monde, June 24, 2022.
2. The WHO defines them as acts carried out "by people who do not have
adequate qualifications or taking place in an environment that does not
comply with minimum medical standards, or in both circumstances ".
3. According to Amnesty International, "access to modern contraceptive
methods, comprehensive sexuality education and safe and legal abortion
services reduces the abortion rate" - read "Key facts on abortion» on
his site.
4. 79 arrests were violently carried out on October 25, 2020 during
actions carried out against the Catholic Church, which is quite rare in
Western Europe.
5. "One year after the virtual ban on abortion in Poland, "abortion
without borders" is thriving", Le Monde, November 1, 2021.
6. "In Russia, the right to abortion attacked and curtailed background
of demographic decline", Le Monde, November 28, 2023.
7. According to the statistical agency Rosstat, Russia has fewer
inhabitants, including annexed Crimea, than in 1999.
8. "Abortion: "In the United States United, one year after Dobbs, this
right remains a crucial issue in the 2024 presidential election," Le
Monde, July 4, 2023.
9. The ban on this pill would open the way to that of medications such
as hormonal treatments, contraceptives or vaccines, and other
restrictions on individual freedoms, such as civil rights.
10. "The right to abortion, the winning electoral standard of American
Democrats", Le Monde, November 8, 2023.
11. "Emmanuel Macron initiates the process aimed at including abortion
in the Constitution", Le Monde, 30 October 2023.
12. On their intense propaganda activity aimed at young people via
social networks, read "Disinformation from opponents of abortion
threatens the right to abortion, warns the Women's Foundation",
Franceinfo, January 18, 2024 13.
Only 38 RN deputies out of a total of 89 voted for the inclusion of
abortion in the Constitution, during the first vote in the Assembly. "On
abortion, Marine Le Pen changes position and proposes to
constitutionalize the Veil law", Le Monde, November 22, 2022.

<quote>New dilemma for the Chinese authorities: too many old people and
not enough young people!
China lost 2 million inhabitants in 2023: it has "only" 1.41 billion
inhabitants on its continental territory, and, according to the UN,
India is now the most populous country in the world (1). The slowdown in
China's birth rate is due to several reasons: the high cost of
education; a lack of confidence in the economic future; a growing
distrust of the institution of marriage (a necessary step to have
children); higher education that a growing number of women are doing and
which is delaying the age of first pregnancy.
The Chinese government is striving to limit demographic decline through
(modest) family allowances, through (strong) communication in favor of
the birth rate... and - since 2021 - through the authorization given to
all couples to have three children . China is indeed faced with the
aging of its population, which can slow down the country's economic
growth and call into question its ability to provide for the needs of
its inhabitants. In addition, the tradition of caring for elderly
parents is more respected in Chinese society than in Western societies;
but as a couple is generally made up of two adults and only children,
they have a lot to do if their four elderly parents are dependent on them.

1. "China affected by a drop in its population for the second
consecutive year", Le Monde, January 17, 2024.

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