It is a Streetpress survey that reveals the mind-boggling means implemented by anti-abortion activists to convince women to give up aborting. This by playing with the limits of the offense of obstructing abortion.
In January 2021, the deputies rejected the bill to extend the period of access to abortion from twelve to fourteen weeks, despite the support for this proposal from many doctors and gynecologists. While the right to abortion still has some progress to make, anti-abortion views are thriving.
Meanwhile, the media Streetpress reveals in an investigation the procedures of anti-abortion activists of SOS Moms. The collective, which is not an official association, has very specific methods to prevent women from having an abortion. Indeed, its members infiltrate the public space, “in the streets, buses, parks, labs, supermarkets, but also by word of mouth”. When one of them hears about an abortion, he or she enters the conversation to change the pregnant woman’s mind. How? ‘Or’ What ? By offering accommodation, financial and material support during pregnancy and after. The forms are varied: payment of invoices, re-shipments to the country of origin for foreign women, reception with supporters of the association for some services.
Read also: Abortion: why we must extend the legal period for abortion
Streetpress says that the structure does not officially exist, but is housed within the global framework of the Union of Nations of Christian Europe, a movement created in 1989. The goal of this union? The spread of the “Christian family, the irreplaceable basis of any human society, the fight against any attack on the life given by God or even the individual and common defense against (…) socialisms, Freemasonry, Human Rights without God “ enumerates Streetpress, according to the site of the entity.
A form of offense punishable by law: the offense of obstructing abortion
The collective surfs at the limit of offense of obstructing abortion, reinforced in 2017 and punished by two years in prison and a fine of 30,000 euros. This is characterized by the fact “to prevent or attempt to prevent practicing or learning about a voluntary termination of pregnancy by any means (…) in particular by the dissemination or transmission of allegations or indications likely to intentionally induce in error, with a deterrent aim, on the characteristics or the medical consequences of an abortion. “ Insofar as the group apparently offers options to make pregnant women reconsider their choices, without explicitly claiming to inform about abortion in itself, it remains outside this offense. However, isn’t insisting on possible solutions with women who seemed a priori to have already made the decision to abort a way of putting pressure on them to reconsider their decision?
In addition, the SOS Mamans collective explicitly expresses its desire to fight against “the deputies who maintain abortion, the state authorities who manage and reimburse it, the doctors who perform it, the pharmacists who sell the abortion pills, even the religious authorities who let this crime pass as if it were crimes. ‘was a problem among others “, in a global anti-abortion discourse which criminalizes this right to dispose of one’s body. Worrisome, at a time when the right to abortion is being questioned in other European countries such as Poland. The investigation shows how relevant this warning from Simone de Beauvoir remains: “Never forget that it will only take a political, economic or religious crisis for the rights of women to be called into question. These rights are never granted. You will have to remain vigilant throughout your life.”
For her part, the gynecologist Ghada Hatem recalled in a forum on our site that “The future of an unwanted child is worrying, and having a child with an abuser puts you in its grip forever. Being a doctor is also about preserving the future.”