‘On les aura!’: The gendered politics of abortion and the Alliance nationale contre la dépopulation, 1938–1944

Abstract

This article examines the centrality of the interwar period's leading natalist‐familialist group, the Alliance nationale contre la dépopulation, in the creation of abortion policy during the Occupation. It asserts that the organisation did more than participate in the abortion debate between 1938 and 1944; through an intensive propaganda and legislative campaign, its leaders cultivated much of the public's and government's fixation on the issues. In doing so, the Alliance helped create the harsh abortion statutes included in the Daladier government's Family Code, laws that the Vichy regime intensified with the 300 Law of February 1942. In this instance, we can see how cultural and political debates about the roles of women in society played a key role in the State's attempt to limit French women's reproductive options. As a result, Vichy officials ultimately guillotined a woman who defied the law and traditional gender norms.