Simone Veil - Wonderful Woman No. 107

Simone Veil - Born 1927
French Lawyer and Politician

Added to the album by Helene, A Wonderful Woman

I would add the marvellous Simone Veil for the extraordinary courage she had in legalising abortion in France in 1974, her speech at the time still rings true today.
Helene

Once again, the album I started on Facebook has allowed me an insight into the life and achievements of another Wonderful Woman, whom previously I knew nothing about. Helene, a friend of a friend, had seen my album and sent me a message suggesting her inclusion and, having done some research into what makes Simone Veil wonderful, I am so pleased that she did. Simone is exactly the type of woman who I feel should be celebrated.

Born into an atheist Jewish family in Nice, during Nazi occupation, the family were deported and as teenager Simone was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Simone lost both her parents and her brother during this time.

Surviving the atrocity of the Holocaust is enough to include any woman as wonderful but Simone went on to achieve a great many things after the war was over.

She graduated with a degree in Law and Political Science and practiced law for many years in the Ministry of Justice. Later, she became a member of the French government and held the post of Minister of Health from 1974 to 1979. As Minister of Health, Simone pushed forward laws to aide women to having a better access to contraception (including the oral contraceptive pill) and to legalise abortion, a difficult battle in the predominantly Catholic country and it is this work for which Simone is best remembered. She went on to become a Member of the European Parliament and became the first elected female President within.

At each stage of her life, Simone Veil had to overcome male resistance in one form or another.
Denis MacShane, The Observer

In conclusion, a Wonderful Woman who survived the worst experiences of human history to go on to be educated, to be successful in not one but two careers and to work vehemently to make her country a better place, particularly for other women.

We, those who had promised those we knew, if by miracle, any of us were to survive, to recount what we saw, yes, we have testified, recounted.
Simone Veil