Le droit à l'avortement

by Séverine

"Le droit à l'avortement by Séverine" is a polemical journalistic essay written in the late 19th century. It challenges the legal and moral order of its time, arguing for women’s right to end a pregnancy and denouncing social hypocrisy around sexuality, motherhood, and the state’s demands for population growth. The piece opens on the “Toulon scandal,” portraying the prosecution of a local politician as a vengeful, provincial conspiracy by magistrates and naval authorities rather than a quest for justice. From there, it presses a broader case: questioning where abortion “begins,” exposing the law’s inconsistencies, and asserting that before birth there is only the woman, whose life and conscience must prevail. It rebuts demographic alarms by showing how society abandons large families, citing a skilled worker with many children refused housing, and argues that many working women choose abortion out of maternal love to protect the children they already have; others act to shield their families from disgrace or, in the case of sex workers, to survive and to spare future children hardship. Dismissing the stereotype of vain “coquettes,” it notes that most women are driven by necessity, not vanity. The essay portrays abortion as a misfortune rather than a crime, honors the courage of women who risk their health, and concludes that punitive laws and a callous social order create the very conditions that force such decisions—making the law, not women, the true culprit.