Mass protests in France against IVF for single, lesbian and bisexual women
A demonstrator waves a flag reading “Liberty, Equality, Fatherhood”, a play on word on France’s national motto, as they take part in a protest against IVF for single women and lesbians(LUCAS BARIOULET/AFP via Getty)
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Paris to protest allowing single, lesbian and bisexual women in France to access state-funded IVF.
Current French law allows state-funded Medically Assisted Procreation (PMA) only to heterosexual couples who are married or have been living together for at least two years.
The draft bioethics law has been approved by France’s lower house of parliament, and would allow give all women the right to PMA regardless of relationship status or orientation.
But political and religious conservatives, many of them the same groups that demonstrated against the legalisation of same-sex marriage in 2013, marched past the French senate on Sunday (October 6) to protest the bill.
According to the BBC, police said that 42,000 protesters took part in the demonstration.
A demonstrator holds a sign reading “Where is your dad?” as he takes part in a protest against a government plan to let single women and lesbians become pregnant with fertility treatments. (LUCAS BARIOULET/AFP via Getty)
Protesters held signs reading “Where is your dad?” and “Liberty, Equality, Paternity,” a play on the French motto.
According to Le Point, Ludovine de la Rochère, the head of the anti-LGBT+ La Manif Pour Tous group, said: “This is a warning to the government. Will it open the dialogue or will it remain in contempt like Hollande in 2012?”
Same-sex marriage was legalised during François Hollande’s presidency, but the bill that could allow all women to access fertility treatment like IVF would be President Emmanuel Macron’s first major social reform.
Several tens of thousands people take part in a protest against a government plan to let single women and lesbians become pregnant with fertility treatments. (Michel Stoupak/NurPhoto via Getty)
Leader of the far-right nationalist party National Rally, Marine Le Pen, previously told RTL radio: “The state is going to lie to a child by saying that you are born from two mothers.
“The state should not lie on a birth certificate … you can say that you are born from an unknown father.”
The bioethics bill must now get the approval of the upper house, or French senate, before it can be passed into law.
