Thousands of protesters marched in Paris on Sunday, Oct. 6 against abortion and medically assisted reproduction.
They were also marching against a recommendation in September that would extend access to fertility treatments to single women and lesbian couples, a treatment currently reserved for heterosexual couples. The bill would also make it mandatory for doctors to offer the procedures and allow patients to receive reimbursement.
For many protesters present at the 13th March for Life, the bill goes against the fundamental role of the father in the family, and the role that medicine should play in society.
“With the law that has just been passed, we doctors are completely changing our profession. Medicine is getting fundamentally overturned, medicine is no longer about care, but responding to desires,” Pediatrician Anne Sophie Biclet told NTD. “It’s implications are that as doctors, we’re going to destroy humans rather than serve them.”
A young man wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat said he was marching to safeguard the traditional family structure. “I’m here because I think that a father is very important to bring balance to a family,” Auguste Henriot told NTD.
Protestors, who said they received the support of Pope Francis and several French bishops, also urged doctors to stop performing abortions and said they want to keep euthanasia banned in France.
Sotteville Mayor Frank Meyer, who is also one of the organizers estimates tens of thousands of people joined the march. “It’s extraordinary,” Meyer told NTD. “It shows how much the French care about the future, and I am very happy about that.”
The bioethics bill will go before the Senate later this month.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
