Marie-Louise Giraud
Marie-Louise Giraud (17 November 1903 – 30 July 1943) was one of the last women to be executed in France. Giraud was convicted in
Background
Marie-Louise Giraud, at the age of 39, was guillotined on the morning of 30 July 1943, in the courtyard of the
Coming from a poor family, Giraud was married to a sailor, with whom she had two children. She worked as a domestic housekeeper and laundress. From the beginning of World War II, she also rented rooms to
Political context
The law of 1920, which criminalized abortion, had the following aims:
- to fill the hole in the population due to the bloodshed of the 1914–1918 war
- to boost the birth rate, which was chronically lower in France than in neighboring countries (including Germany), and had been for over a century
The law of 27 March 1923, stated that whoever caused the miscarriage of a woman shall be punished by one to five years imprisonment and a fine of 500 to 10,000 FF. Also, the woman who had aborted risked six months to two years in prison. A person charged with abortion was judged not by a jury, but by a panel of judges, as juries were believed to be swayed too easily by emotion.
In 1935, paralleling a similar movement in the United States, Dr.
However, on 29 July 1939, a month before the invasion of Poland, the criminal penalties for abortion were increased. Economic deprivation, food shortages, and the separation of a large number of married couples (1.9 million French prisoners of war interned in Germany) led to pregnancies - out of wedlock or not - becoming fewer, but there was a greater demand for abortions, frequently for the victims of forced relationships with the occupying force. Therefore, the Law of 15 February 1942, made abortion a crime against state security, punishable by the death penalty. The law was repealed after the Libération.
The trial
At trial, the President stressed the "immorality" of the accused. Twenty-seven women had used Giraud's services. According to the
Remarks
At the same time in 1942, the recently created
In July 2004, abortions under a physician's supervision were certified by the
Bibliography
- Mireille Le Maguet, Une "faiseuse d'anges" sous Vichy : le cas Marie-Louise Giraud, Institut d'études politiques de Grenoble, Saint-Martin-d'Hères, 1996, 128 p. (Mémoire)