France Takes Step to Ban Pro-Life Websites, Pro-Life Speech

The French Senate has approved a bill to criminalize some pro-life websites.

 

The law, proposed by the country's Socialist-run government, would extend the crime of obstruction to "any means" of communication and to "moral and psychological pressures…against people seeking information on a voluntarily termination of pregnancy."

 

The European Center for Law and Justice says the wording would prohibit any information on abortion, even true, that is likely to exercise a moral and psychological effect on any person who seeks information on abortion. 

 

The law would prohibit the publication of pictures of aborted fetuses, of statistics on medical consequences of abortion, or of testimonies of women who regretted their abortion.

 

The French Senate voted 173-126 to approve the legislation, which was passed by the French National Assembly last week.

 

The legislation will allow pro-life activists to be prosecuted for "exercising...moral and psychological pressures, threats or any act of intimidation against people seeking information on a voluntary termination of pregnancy."

 

Those found to be in violation of the law will face up to two years in prison and $30,000 in fines.

 

Grégor Puppinck, the director of the European Centre for Law and Justice, said, the law "may prohibit the church from publishing its position on abortion. If you teach that it is a sin, then teaching itself would be sufficient for prosecution."

 

The Senate and National Assembly versions of the legislation must now be reconciled before it becomes law.