“A teenager’s round cheeks, bathed in tears.” the senator’s stirring speech before the abortion vote.

They overwhelmingly voted in favor of including abortion in the Constitution. On Monday, March 4, during a meeting held at the Congress in Versailles, the parliamentarians adopted the bill presented by Eric Dupont-Moretti and Avro Berge by 780 votes to 72 votes. Gathering, during which Claude Malhuret gave a moving speech, greeted with thunderous applause. Before the text was adopted by Congress, the 73-year-old senator from Allier, who is a doctor and lawyer, shocked the assembly by bringing forward a story that had “never been told” before.

“Terror and Obscurity”

The events allegedly took place when he was 25 years old and serving as the chief physician of a “small hospital in a remote corner of the southern country” with “poor equipment”. “One day, after hearing a commotion in the corridor, I saw a young woman of 17-18 years old appear in my office, whose face I will always remember,” he began. The round cheeks of a teenage girl, all red and bathed in tears. Out of breath, with horror and an incomprehensible expression mixed in his eyes.

Before proceeding. His hands were caught by two gendarmes, who framed him and pushed him indifferently into the room. Claude Malhuret then reported that a neighbor of this young woman, curious about “the wanderings of the stray dogs which persistently scratched the earth near her house,” had discovered “the corpse of an infant barely buried in the ground. . “The investigation wasn’t too difficult and now I’ve been asked to examine the ‘suspect’ to see if she’s just given birth or not,” the senator explained. I was frozen. It was, of course, infanticide, and the law ordered me to carry it out.”

“Mad with the pain of sin”

At that time, however, the former doctor had reservations. “I also knew perfectly well why that young woman was there,” he said. In a country, like many others, where unmarried motherhood, it was the word of the day, meant social ostracism and dishonor to the family. Where abortion was prohibited and severely punished. And besides, how could this almost child trust anyone to find an angel maker?’

And the senator continued. “For the past few months, I have imagined her life pregnant with a ‘barrier temptress’, perhaps as often as a parent who first discovered her late period with fear, then saw her belly round and hide the pregnancy. more and more difficulties, to give birth alone in secret, to clumsily bury the child on the spot, maddened with pain and guilt, and then to return home and wash the clothes with the horror of being discovered.’

Claude Malhuret recounts that he later hid his face in his hands, “desperately seeking to avoid the inevitable.” The nurse then entered the room, pulling down the young woman’s bra and “squeezing her nipple, which spurted milk, confirming her diagnosis and suspicions.” “I can still see this teenager, crying more and more, coming out depressed between these two guards,” he added. I often think of her and her eyes, like a hunted animal, and wonder to myself how many years she will be in prison for infanticide, and especially how many years of guilt, perhaps a lifetime, for killing her child.”

“Secret Abortions, Beliefs, Infertility”

Claude Malhuret assured that he could tell other such stories if he had time: “secret abortions that end badly, convictions, permanent infertility,” he said. “Today, these stories no longer exist in our country since the law on “Sleeping”. And the interventions of those who preceded me were particularly focused on the fact that we would know if the freedom of abortion would one day be called into question. I wanted to address another side of this debate.” The politician thus noted that “at least 40% of the world’s women live in countries where tragedies like the one I described to you continue because nothing has changed.”

The senator then hailed the debates, stances and progress “that will bring closer the day when, as here, women will be freed from fear, guilt and powerlessness to control their own destiny.” Claude Malhuret also confided that he saw this young woman’s face again when he was voting in the Senate for abortion in the Constitution. The one whose life and her child’s life was destroyed and whose face she saw again during her vote on Monday, March 4th. “I hope that my voice will be useful not only for the millions of women who are protected by the law in France, but also for the millions of people in the world who are not protected by any law.” A request that caused strong emotions.