Activists are calling to build a monument in Paris to honor the women who died from unsafe abortions before abortion was legalized in France in 1975.

By Solène Cordier
Sep 27, 2025

"I place my fate in your hands. And I ask if there might not be another way by performing an intervention, as I do not want this pregnancy and would do anything... and am capable of the worst. I beg you, doctor, do not abandon me." These few lines, dated November 13, 1972, were written by the mother of a 6-year-old boy, devastated by the discovery of a new pregnancy that was endangering her health. She wrote to the one she called "the man of lost causes" and, on a personal level, "my last hope": Professor Paul Milliez.

The forthcoming book Lettres pour un avortement illégal (1971-1974) ("Letters for an Illegal Abortion"), to be published on October 17, contains about 50 letters like this one. On Sunday, September 28, as part of International Safe Abortion Day, excerpts were to be read at the Maison de la Poésie, a cultural center in central Paris dedicated to poetry. During the event, there was to be an appeal to build a monument in memory of women who died from illegal abortions.

Continued: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2025/09/28/french-artists-and-feminists-push-to-honor-women-who-died-of-illegal-abortions_6745868_7.html