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Find on Actu Chartres, every Sunday, a Eurelian chronicle of History and stories offered by Alain Denizet. Professor, historian, writer of Eure-et-Loir, for years he has brought together all of his chronicles on his site.
1947, Chartres, abortion: doctor and patient in court.
Classified since 1923 by the Penal Code as a misdemeanor judged in correctional, abortion was punishable by imprisonment – a maximum of ten years – and a fine – up to 72,000 francs.
The Liberation did not call into question the repressive arsenal put in place before the war.
In [1945, a peak was even reached with 3,800 convictions against angel makers and their clients[1].
For their part, organizations such as “The National Alliance against Depopulation” campaigned for large families to avoid the aging of the country and its consequences “on the country’s public finances”.
Doctor in court, deceased patient
It was in this context that the case of Doctor D. de Fontaine-la-Guyon.
Recently widowed, Mrs. V … had died in a Chartres clinic suites of “abortion maneuvers”.
Shortly before her death, she confessed to her attending physician that it was her colleague from La Fontaine-Guyon who had performed the abortion on September 30, 1946. The examination revealed “big blunders” which had caused perforations of the uterus and bladder in three places and which could not be attributed to the victim.
This is why Doctor D., 72 years old and established for forty years in the town, was on the dock on February 12.
It was learned that in 1946 he had already been worried about a similar affair. During the trial, very courteous, he posed as a compassionate man: his patient was afraid of “giving birth to a weak child”.
The conviction for … fraud
Initially, he had refused any intervention, then faced with his distress, had committed a sham.
I boiled my instruments, I examined her; I confined myself to exerting a few pressures which could have absolutely no effect.
The objective was to ” produce a psychological shock »For which the doctor – who was chasing money to play races – pocketed 6,000 francs[2].
Why such a sum for a deception? Inquired the judge.
“The medical fees are not limiting from above”, replied the doctor, sure of his right, then imperial, “the psychological shock, it pays.”
Although the prevention of attempted abortion was ruled out because it was insufficiently established, Doctor D. was nevertheless sentenced to five months in prison and a fine of 30,000 francs for fraud.
The same doctor again in court
Was he used to the fact? Still, charged with a second abortion performed in September 1947 – he appeared before the criminal court on January 21 following this time with his client, a young unmarried 22-year-old pregnant with her fiancé who no longer wanted the marry. Incarnation of the drama of seduced and abandoned girls.
She explained that in a queue in a Chartres store, she had caught a conversation in which it was about a doctor from Fontaine La Guyon who ” rid the women who did not want to give birth to a child ».
The practitioner denied the operation, but recognized a sham billed at the same price.
The court fined his client 30,000 francs for having aborted; Sentenced to ten months in prison, the doctor thanked the president, but let him know that he was ill and wanted to go to the hospital.
1974: the Veil law
Dishonor, court, suffering, death: it was, before the Veil law of 1974, the fate of women who wanted to carry out a voluntary termination of pregnancy[3].
A right still contested: it is called into question in 2021 in the state of Texas, in the United States.
[1] The simple fact of speaking about it publicly, of informing falls under the blow of the law. Likewise, disclosing or offering contraceptive methods is punishable by 6 months in prison and a fine of 100 to 5,000 francs. Contraception training during medical studies is also prohibited.
[2] It is a large sum. 6000 francs represents ¾ of the average wage of a worker.
[3] On this subject, Xaviere Gauthier, Abortées clandestines, éd. du Mauconduit, 2015. There were tens of thousands of illegal abortions.
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