Also called proclamation of the 343 bitches , the proclamation of the 343 is a petition published in the Magazine French Nouvel Observateur the April 5th 1971 and signed by 343 Femme S affirming to have undergone a Avortement, and being thus exposed to criminal prosecutions being able to go until the imprisonment.

The text

The proclamation starts with these sentences:

“a million women are made fall through each year in France.

They do it under dangerous conditions because of the clandestinity to which they are condemned, whereas this operation, practiced under medical control, is simpler.

One makes silence on this million women.

I declare that I am one of them. I state to have fallen through.

Just as we claim the free access to the contraceptive methods, we claim the free abortion. ”

The 343 signatures follow, in particular those of personalities such as Francoise d' Eaubonne, Simone de Beauvoir, Christine Delphy, Catherine Deneuve, Marguerite Duras, Brigitte Fontaine, Gisele Halimi, Bernadette Lafont, Violette Leduc, ARIANE Mnouchkine, Jeanne Moreau, Marie-France Pisier, Yvette Roudy, Francoise Sagan, Delphine Seyrig, Nadine Trintignant, Agnès Varda, Marina Vlady, Monique Wittig etc

Some of the signatories claimed the free and free abortion.

Its impact

Did the week following the publication of proclamation, the satiric weekly Charlie Hebdo do its one with a drawing being caught some to the politicians with the sentence “which engrossé the 343 bitches? ”. It is with this drawing that the proclamation owes its nickname.

It is about the one of the most known examples of civil Désobéissance in France. It inspired in 1973 a proclamation of 331 doctors declaring itself for the freedom of the abortion. It especially contributed to the adoption, in December 1974 - January 1975 of the law Veil which dépénalisait the Voluntary interruption of pregnancy (IVG) at the time of the first ten weeks of pregnancy, a time increased since to twelve weeks.

External bonds

• the text of proclamation and the list of the signatories

Podcast of the article

• Proclamation of the 343 bitches