Pro-life campaigners in France now risk up to two years in prison and 30,000 euros in fines if their websites are judged to mislead users by stressing complications from and alternatives to abortion and do not openly state that they are pro-life.
Left-wing and centre-left parties in the National Assembly voted the new crime called 'online obstruction of abortion' into law on 15 February despite criticism by the conservative Republicans that it amounted to a violation of free speech.
Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris, called the new law “an ideological choice” and said it “goes to the limit of democratic practice, and even beyond it”. The bishops’ conference formally protested earlier in the legislative process, saying the new law was being rushed through parliament without proper consultation.
The Government moved to create the new crime after finding that its own website, which stresses abortion rights and glosses over any related problems, appeared on search engines below some private abortion counselling sites run by pro-life groups, mostly with a Catholic background. It said it would not shut down the websites, but open them to lawsuits for spreading what the bill calls "allegations (or) indications likely to intentionally mislead and deter (women) about the characteristics or medical consequences of a voluntary termination of pregnancy”.
France legalised abortion more than 40 years ago and already has an 'obstruction to abortion' law that makes it a criminal offence to intimate or pressure a woman in order to stop her terminating a pregnancy. This law was initially aimed at anti-abortion protesters in the 1980s who tried to physically obstruct women from accessing clinics or advice centres, and was later extended to anyone exerting moral or psychological pressure on women. The anti-abortion battle that used to take place outside clinics has now moved online some French MPs have said in explanation as to why the obstruction law has been extended to include online.
PICTURE: French National Assembly, Paris
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