03:38France: Tens of thousands protest against IVF for single women and lesbians
Tens of thousands of people flooded the streets of Paris on Sunday to protest against a proposed new law that would allow medically-assisted procreation, including in vitro fertilisation (IVF), to be accessed by single women and lesbians.
Protesters, including children, marched with signs reading "Where is your dad?" and "Liberty, equality, paternity." The protest was attended by an estimated 42,000 people, though some reports claim that the number is 74,000, with organisers quoted in media as saying there were around 600,000 attendees.
President of the La Manif pour tous, which is one of the groups behind the protest, Ludovine de la Rochere, said that "a single woman or two women cannot conceive a kid together. And if we divert medicine to provide them with a kid, we, first of all, use men as sperm distributors, and then, and mostly, we are depriving kids of a father for their entire life, which is infinitely unfair. It is like considering a father as secondary, as not important in life."
The bill, part of a larger bioethics law, aims at ending discrimination over women's reproductive rights and was one of French President Emmanuel Macron's campaign promises.
The draft was approved by the National Assembly but still needs to go through the Senate.
Medically-assisted procreation measures are currently only accessible for heterosexual couples that have been married or living together for at least two years.
03:38Tens of thousands of people flooded the streets of Paris on Sunday to protest against a proposed new law that would allow medically-assisted procreation, including in vitro fertilisation (IVF), to be accessed by single women and lesbians.
Protesters, including children, marched with signs reading "Where is your dad?" and "Liberty, equality, paternity." The protest was attended by an estimated 42,000 people, though some reports claim that the number is 74,000, with organisers quoted in media as saying there were around 600,000 attendees.
President of the La Manif pour tous, which is one of the groups behind the protest, Ludovine de la Rochere, said that "a single woman or two women cannot conceive a kid together. And if we divert medicine to provide them with a kid, we, first of all, use men as sperm distributors, and then, and mostly, we are depriving kids of a father for their entire life, which is infinitely unfair. It is like considering a father as secondary, as not important in life."
The bill, part of a larger bioethics law, aims at ending discrimination over women's reproductive rights and was one of French President Emmanuel Macron's campaign promises.
The draft was approved by the National Assembly but still needs to go through the Senate.
Medically-assisted procreation measures are currently only accessible for heterosexual couples that have been married or living together for at least two years.