Film Festival Preview: ‘The Law’

The Law; directed by Christian Faure; France; 2013; 90 minues; French with English subtitles; drama to be shown twice during the San Diego Jewish Film Festival at 2 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 11, and at 6 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 13 at the Reading Cinemas 14, 4665 Clairemont Drive, San Diego.

By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO – Auschwitz survivor Simone Veil was appointed by French President Valery Giscard d’Estang to serve as health minister in the government headed by Prime Minister Jacques Chirac.  In that capacity, she was the principal author of a 1975 bill to legalize abortions in France.

In this reenactment of the French debate over abortion, in which Veil had to make important compromises in order to win passage of the legislation in the National Assembly, there are two protagonists.  Veil (portrayed by Emmanuelle Devos) and photojournalist Diane Riestrof (Flore Bonaventura) who visits victims of botched abortion in a hospital and follows up with visits to pro-life and pro-choice camps.

For Veil, the catastrophes visited upon many thousands of women who have back-alley abortions or who even try to cut the fetuses out of their own bodies, are a health hazard that need to be prevented in the name of humanitarianism.  She does not want the battle cast in ideological terms: although a minister for women’s issues is a member of her political party, Veil insists that the abortion debate be framed as a health issue and not as a more polarizing feminist issue.

So keeping her compatriot out of the debate is one matter with which the ever cool, and seemingly unflappable, Veil must contend. But there are many other forces.  The French Catholic Church which ideologically opposed abortion, but which also had compassion for the women victims, had to be persuaded to keep silent on the pending legislation.  This the Church did after extracting from Veil a promise that doctors who did not wish to perform abortions could refuse to do so.

The opt-out system, however, was unacceptable to the Left wing, which wished to declare abortion as an absolute right for women.  Veil thus needed to persuade a leader of the left that it is better to make some progress on the issue of abortion than to make none at all.

In her own party, there were recalcitrant members of the Assembly, whose rhetoric became more and more emotionally charged, until in one memorable scene a legislator gives a floor speech comparing abortions to the systematic murder carried out by the Nazis against the Jews.

The fact that this legislator was comparing Veil to the very same people who murdered her parents was not lost on the anti-Semites of Paris, who plastered the apartment building in which the Jewish lawmaker lived with swastikas and slogans denouncing her.

Chirac had said members of his party were free to vote their conscience. However, one party lieutenant told the Justice Minister, who had planned to oppose the measure, that of course, if he did oppose it, he would have to resign if the measure were passed.  It would be very difficult to defend in court a law which he had so publicly opposed n’est-ce pas?  The Justice Minister got the message.

In the end, the bill was approved on a vote of 284-189.

Although we know the outcome of the debate, this is an important film to see because it explains the issues surrounding abortions while portraying the suspense and drama of the legislative process.

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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World.  He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com  Comments intended for publication in the space below must be accompanied by the letter writer’s first and last name and by his/ her city and state of residence (city and country for those outside the U.S.)