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France passes bill to criminalize 'misleading' pro-life websites

A pro-life group is symbolically gagged during a vigil in front of the Supreme Court in Washington DC. | Wikimedia Commons/Ben Schumin

The French National Assembly has recently passed a bill that seeks to criminalize websites that could discourage women from terminating their pregnancies.

The bill would outlaw websites that are deemed to be misleading or "exert psychological or moral pressure" on women who are looking for information about abortions, The Guardian reported. Offending website owners could be punished with up two years imprisonment and a €30,000 fine.

Laurence Rossignol, the Socialist women's minister, said that the new bill was not intended to suppress anti-abortion opinion, but it targets websites that hide their true nature and utilize "insidious" pressure on women.

"Everyone is free to affirm their hostility to abortion online or anywhere else, but on condition of doing it in all honesty, because freedom of expression can't be confused with manipulating people," Rossignol told the Parliament.

"Thirty years ago, campaigners chained themselves to the gates of family planning clinics or operating tables to stop women accessing terminations. Today the next generation continues this battle online," she continued.

Abortion was legalized in France over 40 years ago. In 1993, the government passed a law to criminalize "false information" about abortion.

The new bill will extend the 1993 law, which was originally intended to prevent pro-life activists from obstructing access to abortion clinics, to apply to digital media. Earlier this year, the senate blocked the first attempt to pass the bill.

Dominique Tian, a Republican MP, said that the proposals were "dangerous for democracy and probably anti-constitutional." He accused the government of "attacking freedom of expression" and stated that his party would do everything to keep blocking the bill.

The proposal was passed just after the Republican party nominated Francois Fillon as its presidential candidate. Fillon said that he is personally against abortion due to his Christian faith, but he stressed that would not overturn the French abortion law.

The bill will go through the Senate on Dec. 7 for a second reading. The final reading is expected to take place at the end of February.