仏パリで生殖補助医療に反対するデモ　７万人以上が参加

【パリＡＦＰ＝時事】フランスの首都パリで6日、独身者や同性愛者を含むすべての女性に生殖補助医療を認める法改正に反対するデモが行われ、7万人以上が参加した。2013年に同性婚が合法化されて以来初の大規模な社会制度改革となる同法案は、先月下院で可決された。（写真は仏首都パリで行われた、独身者や同性愛者を含むすべての女性に生殖補助医療を認める改正案に反対するデモ）
　赤と緑の旗を振るデモの参加者らは、同国の標語「自由・平等・友愛」の最後の言葉をもじり、「自由、平等、父性」と叫びながら、国民議会から高層ビル「トゥール・モンパルナス」まで歩いた。
　独立メディアの推計による参加者数は、約７万４５００人。一方、主催者側は６０万人が参加したとしている。
　エマニュエル・マクロン仏大統領は、２０１７年の大統領選で対抗する右派やカトリック教会など保守的な宗教団体による根強い反対をものともせず、生殖補助医療の拡大を認める法案を推進すると公約していた。
　改正案によると、４３歳以下のすべての女性が受ける生殖補助医療の費用は国の医療制度で負担される。また、現状では精子提供者の匿名性が厳しく保護されているが、法案が可決されれば、提供された精子で生まれた子どもが１８歳に達して以降、自分の父親を確認することが可能となる。
　反対派は改正案について、子どもたちから必要な父親像を奪い、伝統的な家族構成を脅かし、さらに同性愛男性を含む代理母出産の合法化に道を開くことになると批判している。
　欧州ではすでに英国やスペイン、ポルトガル、オランダ、アイルランド、ベルギー、スカンディナビア諸国で、すべての女性に生殖補助医療が認められている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2019/10/07-12:30）

Thousands gathered in Paris on Sunday to protest the government's plan to let single women and lesbians become pregnant with fertility treatments, the country's first major social reform since France legalised gay marriage in 2013.
Waving red and green flags, a crowd marched from the French Senate toward the monolithic Tour Montparnasse skyscraper, chanting Liberty, Equality, Paternity -- a play on the French motto which ends with Fraternity.
Many wore the distinctive cone-shaped red Phyrgian hats that are a symbol of the French republic.
Organisers said they hoped 100,000 will turn out against the law, which was approved by the lower house of parliament last month, but officials said they were expecting 10,000 to 20,000 people.
For two years now our attempts at dialogue have gone nowhere... the street is the only place left for us to be heard, Ludovine de la Rochere, president of the Protest for Everyone association, told journalists Sunday.
President Emmanuel Macron pledged during his 2017 election campaign to push the law despite deep resistance among rightwing opponents as well as conservative Roman Catholics and other religious groups.
They had mobilised massively in 2012 and 2013 against a move by Macron's Socialist predecessor Francois Hollande to legalise marriage for homosexual couples, with one Paris protest attracting 340,000 people according to police.
But that law did not allow lesbian couples or single women to have children via in-vitro fertilisation or other medically assisted means, long a taboo in France.
Many women have instead been forced to go abroad for such treatments, and French courts often refuse to recognise the second mother's maternity rights in the case of same-sex couples.
Under the proposed law, France's healthcare system would cover the cost of the procedure for all women under 43.
It would also allow children conceived with donated sperm to find out the donor's identity when they turn 18, a change from the country's strict donor anonymity protections.
If approved, the law would bring French legislation in line with other European nations including Britain, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium and Scandinavian countries, which authorise medically assisted procreation for all women.
- 'Much less divided' -
Opponents say the law deprives children of a necessary paternal figure and threatens a traditional family structure, and would open the door to legalising surrogacy, including for gay men.
Protest organisers chartered two high-speed TGV trains and around 100 buses to bring people to Paris on Sunday, and said they had distributed some three million flyers against the law in recent weeks.
The family, with a mother and a father, is an ecosystem that needs protecting, said Christian Kersabiec, 68, who came to the march Sunday from Vannes in Brittany, denouncing this new society where they play the sorcerer's apprentice.
But analysts say French society has become more accepting of non-traditional families since the gay marriage law was passed in 2013.
Last week, National Assembly lawmakers voted to make it easier for parents who have children via a surrogate mother abroad, in countries where it is legal, to have them officially recognised in France -- though Macron's government has said it opposes the move.
And an Ifop poll in September found that 68 percent approved IVF and other medically assisted procreation (MAP) for single women, and 65 percent for lesbian couples.
It's hard to predict what will happen Sunday but public opinion is much less divided on MAP than on gay marriage, Frederic Dabi, an Ifop director, told AFP.
Gerard Larcher, the rightwing president of the Senate who protested against the gay marriage law six years ago, is not expected to attend the rally Sunday.
The people demonstrating will be doing it more out of moral conviction, a sense of duty, rather than to try to make the government back down, said Yann Raison de Cleuziou, a sociologist who has studied the conservative Catholic movement against the family reforms.