Hundreds rally in the streets of Paris to support world abortion rights

Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — Hundreds of people have marched in Paris in support of the right to abortion for women across the world. Saturday’s march was organized by civil society groups to mark International Safe Abortion Day. Participants also called for greater and easier access to abortion in France, denouncing budget cuts, staff reductions and the closure of abortion centers and maternity wards, which they say all contribute to penalizing women. Sarah Durocher, president of France’s not-for-profit family planning services, says French women sometimes face an “obstacle course” to access medical services needed to abort. Earlier this year, France became the only country to explicitly guarantee a woman’s right to voluntarily terminate a pregnancy.