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50th anniversary of the French manifesto in favour of abortion

Paris (France), Apr 5 (EFE) .- (Camera: Marta Garde) Fifty years ago 343 women in France dared to publicly affirm that they had had an abortion. They were heavily criticised and insulted, but their manifesto, which turns 50 on Monday, broke the silence around abortion and contributed to its decriminalization four years later.FOOTAGE OF THE L'OBS MAGAZINE, WHICH PUBLISHED THE MANIFESTO IN 1971.INTERVIEW WITH CLAUDINE MONTEIL, ONE OF THE SIGNATORIES.TRANSLATION:1.- In France, it is estimated that there were about 800,000 clandestine abortions a year in 1970 and that 5,000 women died from these clandestine abortions.2.- Abortion was the most taboo word in French society. It seemed clear to us that to break this taboo you had to cause a scandal.3.- We decided that there would be both famous and unknown women. They were women of four generations and from all walks of life. All French society was represented in that manifesto.4.- We hoped they would talk about it. The great success of this manifesto is that all French families were forced to talk about it.5.- We managed, without really imagining it at that moment, to shake the walls of the patriarchy.6.- It's been 50 years of me and of us being treated as 'whores', and that word in French is very pejorative7.- This is the cover, it is my old issue of Le Nouvel Observateur from April 5, 1971, and you can see it in the headline "Women who have the courage to sign 'I have aborted'". The word whore isn't there, but the word courage is.8.- Women's rights are never fully achieved.