She was born in 1922 in Paris and is a survivor of Auschwitz concentration camp, where she lost part of her family. After the war, she worked first for the French Ministry of Justice.
In 1974, she became Minister of Health.
The 26th July 1974, she proposed the law about IVG (abortion) at the French National Assembly. The story says that when her predecessor at the Health Ministry leave her the office, he told her that she has to legislate about abortion or she will have an illegal abortion in her own office (because it was common, about 300 000 in France in 1973, even if it was forbidden and dangerous) She was a women of the "right" but this law was more backup by the politicians of the "left". There have been a very though fight and she has been insulted even from politician of her side (right, usually traditionalists). She hold on and the law was voted 3 days later.
Quote from a her speech : "First, I would like to share a woman's conviction, I apologize to it in front of an assembly made almost exclusively by men : no woman ever resort to abortion with pleasure , you just have to hear the women, it is always a tragedy, it will always be a tragedy"
She has also made contraception more accessible, with a law allowing payback of contraception by the state (Social Security) and no more parental authorization requirement for minors to get contraception.
After that, she has been elected president of the European Parliament (she was the first woman to do that) from 1979 to 1982. Then, she has been member of the Constitutional Council and she is now a member of the "Académie Française" (the members of this institution are called Immortals, and they are supposed to help preserve and evolve French language)
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