Timeline

The Manifesto of the 343 was both the culmination of a rich history of women’s activism in France and the beginning of a growing international feminist movement. Due to the popular satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo featuring a caricature of in which the signatories are referred to as “salopes” (“sluts or bitches” in English), it is also referred to as the “Manifesto of 343 Sluts”.  The declaration of hundreds of French women that they had illegal abortions not only exposed the ineffectiveness of the laws banning abortion in practice, it also brought the issue of abortion into the national discussion. Some of the notable signers of the Manifesto, namely Giséle Halimi, Christiane Rochefort, and Simone de Beauvoir, taking advantage of the momentum created a legal defense group called Choisir (to choose in French) to provide assistance to women charged with breaking abortion laws. Choisir (and Giséle Halimi) specifically came to represent Marie-Claire Chevalier, her mother, and two other women in what became known as the “Bobigny affair” (“le procés de Bobigny”). (2) Additionally, similar declarations by German and American women were published in Stern on June 6, 1971 and Ms. magazine in January of 1972, respectively. In addition, doctors and other supporters of reproductive freedom issued their own manifestoes in publications like Le Nouvel Observateur and Le Monde.(1) The opposition from extra-parliamentary activist groups and medical professionals continued to put pressure on the government to pass legislation liberalizing abortion. After fierce debate in the National Assembly, they voted in favor of legalizing abortion on demand during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. Referred to as the "Veil law" (“la loi Veil”) after the French Health Minister Simone Veil, ending a fifty-four-year total ban on abortion. The law went into effect on January 18, 1975.

1. Sandra Reineke, Beauvoir and Her Sisters: The Politics of Women's Bodies in France, (University of Illinois Press, 2011), 16.
Retrieved from ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/clevelandstate-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3413880.

2.  “Qui sommes nous?,” Choisir de la cause des femmes, Accessed 12/01/2020, https://www.choisirlacausedesfemmes.org/qui-sommes-nous/.