Manifesto of the 343
Encyclopedia
The Manifesto of the 343 (French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

: "le manifeste des 343"), was a declaration that was signed by 343 women admitting to having had an abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...

, thereby exposing themselves to criminal prosecution. The manifesto appeared in the French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur
Le Nouvel Observateur
Le Nouvel Observateur is a weekly French newsmagazine. Based in Paris, it is the most prominent French general information magazine in terms of audience and circulation ....

on April 5, 1971.
It was also known as the "Manifesto of the 343 Sluts" or the "Manifesto of the 343 Bitches" ("le manifeste des 343 salopes").

The text

The text of the manifesto
Manifesto
A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature. Manifestos relating to religious belief are generally referred to as creeds. Manifestos may also be life stance-related.-Etymology:...

 was written by Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, often shortened to Simone de Beauvoir , was a French existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, and social theorist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, an autobiography in several volumes, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and...

. It began (translated here into English):


One million women in France have an abortion every year.

Condemned to secrecy, they have them in dangerous conditions when this procedure, performed under medical supervision, is one of the simplest.

These women are veiled in silence.

I declare that I am one of them. I have had an abortion.

Just as we demand free access to birth control, we demand the freedom to have an abortion.

Impact

The week after the manifesto appeared, the front page of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo
Charlie Hebdo
Charlie Hebdo is a French satirical weekly newspaper, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics and jokes. It appeared from 1969 to 1981, when it folded, and was resurrected in 1992. The current editor is cartoonist Charb. His predecessors are François Cavanna and Philippe Val...

carried a drawing attacking male politicians with the question "Qui a engrossé les 343 salopes du manifeste sur l'avortement?" ("Who got the 343 sluts [bitches] from the abortion manifesto pregnant?") This drawing by Cabu
Cabu
Cabu is a French comic strip artist and caricaturist.He started out studying art at the École Estienne in Paris and his drawings were first published by 1954 in a local newspaper...

 gave the manifesto its nickname.

It was the inspiration for a February 3, 1973, manifesto by 331 doctors declaring their support for abortion rights:


We want freedom of abortion. It is entirely the woman's decision. We reject any entity that forces her to defend herself, perpetuates an atmosphere of guilt, and allows underground abortions to persist ....


It contributed above all to the adoption, in December 1974–January 1975, of the "Veil law", named for Health Minister Simone Veil
Simone Veil
Simone Veil, DBE is a French lawyer and politician who served as Minister of Health under Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, President of the European Parliament and member of the Constitutional Council of France....

, that repealed the penalty for voluntarily terminating a pregnancy during the first ten weeks (later extended to twelve weeks).

Notable signers

  • Françoise d'Eaubonne
    Françoise d'Eaubonne
    Françoise d'Eaubonne was a French feminist, who introduced the term ecofeminism in 1974....

  • Simone de Beauvoir
    Simone de Beauvoir
    Simone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, often shortened to Simone de Beauvoir , was a French existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, and social theorist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, an autobiography in several volumes, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and...

  • Christine Delphy
    Christine Delphy
    Christine Delphy is a French sociologist, feminist, writer and theorist. She was a co-founder of the review Nouvelles questions féministes with Simone de Beauvoir in 1977.-Biography:...

  • Catherine Deneuve
    Catherine Deneuve
    Catherine Deneuve is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof and mysterious beauties in films such as Repulsion and Belle de jour . Deneuve was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1993 for her performance in Indochine; she also won César Awards for that...

  • Marguerite Duras
    Marguerite Duras
    Marguerite Donnadieu, better known as Marguerite Duras was a French writer and film director.-Background:...

  • Françoise Fabian
    Françoise Fabian
    Françoise Fabian is a French film actress. She has appeared in over 80 films since 1956.She was born in Algiers, Algeria, and is the widow of screenwriter and director Jacques Becker and actor Marcel Bozzuffi. One of her best-known roles is as Maud in Eric Rohmer's My Night at Maud's...

  • Brigitte Fontaine
    Brigitte Fontaine
    Brigitte Fontaine, born in 1939 in Morlaix in the Brittany region of France, is a singer of avant-garde music. During the course of her career she has employed numerous unusual musical styles, melding rock and roll, folk, jazz, electronica, spoken word poetry and world rhythms...

  • Gisèle Halimi
    Gisèle Halimi
    Gisèle Halimi, born Zeiza Gisèle Élise Taïeb in 1927, is a French-Tunisian lawyer, feminist activist, and essayist.-Career:Born in La Goulette, to a Jewish mother and father, she was educated at a French lycée in Tunis, and then attended the University of Paris, graduating in law and philosophy...

  • Bernadette Lafont
    Bernadette Lafont
    Bernadette Lafont is a French actress and the mother of Pauline Lafont .Bernadette Lafont won the César Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for L'Effrontée...

  • Violette Leduc
    Violette Leduc
    Violette Leduc was a French author.She was born in Arras, Pas de Calais, France, the illegitimate daughter of a servant girl, Berthe. In Valenciennes, the young Violette spent most of her childhood suffering from poor self-esteem, exacerbated by her mother's hostility and overprotectiveness...

  • Ariane Mnouchkine
    Ariane Mnouchkine
    Ariane Mnouchkine is a world-renowned French stage director. She founded the Parisian avant-garde stage ensemble Théâtre du Soleil in 1964. She has written and directed 1789 and Molière , and in 1989, she directed La Nuit Miraculeuse...

  • Claudine Monteil
    Claudine Monteil
    Claudine Monteil is a French writer and women's rights specialist. She holds a PhD based on study of Simone de Beauvoir's writings and life. Her mother, Dr Josiane Serre, was a chemist who became the director of the Ecole Normale Superieure de Jeunes Filles...

  • Jeanne Moreau
    Jeanne Moreau
    Jeanne Moreau is a French actress, singer, screenwriter and director.She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française...

  • Marie Pillet (Julie Delpy
    Julie Delpy
    Julie Delpy is a French-American actress, director, screenwriter, and singer-songwriter. She studied filmmaking at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and has directed, written, and acted in more than 30 films, including Europa Europa , The Voyager , Three Colors: White , Before Sunrise...

    's mother)
  • Marie-France Pisier
    Marie-France Pisier
    Marie-France Pisier was a French actress. She appeared in numerous films of the French New Wave and twice earned the national César Award for Best Supporting Actress.-Life and career:...

  • Micheline Presle
    Micheline Presle
    Micheline Presle is a French actress also known in English language films as Micheline Prelle.Born Micheline Nicole Julia Émilienne Chassagne in Paris, she wanted to be an actress from an early age. She took acting classes in her early teens and made her film debut at the age of fifteen in the...

  • Marthe Robert
  • Yvette Roudy
  • Françoise Sagan
    Françoise Sagan
    Françoise Sagan – real name Françoise Quoirez – was a French playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. Hailed as "a charming little monster" by François Mauriac on the front page of Le Figaro, Sagan was known for works with strong romantic themes involving wealthy and disillusioned bourgeois...

  • Delphine Seyrig
    Delphine Seyrig
    Delphine Claire Beltiane Seyrig was a stage and film actress and a film director.-Early life:...

  • Nadine Trintignant
    Nadine Trintignant
    Nadine Trintignant is a French film director, producer, and screenwriter.-Career:She was a film director, producer, and screenwriter with extensive film credits from the 1960s to the present...

  • Agnès Varda
    Agnès Varda
    Agnès Varda is a French film director and professor at the European Graduate School. Her movies, photographs, and art installations focus on documentary realism, feminist issues, and social commentary — with a distinct experimental style....

  • Marina Vlady
    Marina Vlady
    Marina Vlady is a French actress.She won the Best Actress Award at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival for The Conjugal Bed. From 1955 to 1959 she was married to actor/director Robert Hossein...

  • Anne Wiazemsky
    Anne Wiazemsky
    Princess Anne Wiazemsky is a French actress and novelist, of the Russian Rurikid family of Princes Vyazemsky-Counts Levashov. Through her mother, she is the granddaughter of François Mauriac. She appeared in Robert Bresson's Au hasard Balthazar and in Godard's films La Chinoise and Week End...

  • Monique Wittig
    Monique Wittig
    Monique Wittig was a French author and feminist theorist who wrote about overcoming socially enforced gender roles and who coined the phrase "heterosexual contract". She published her first novel, L'Opoponax, in 1964...


External links

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