France adopts law against misleading anti-abortion websites

PARIS – France’s parliament has approved a bill criminalizing websites that carry purposely false information with the aim of dissuading women from having abortions.

The lower house of parliament, dominated by a Socialist majority, passed the measure Thursday with a show of hands.

France’s minister for women’s rights, Laurence Rossignol, says the law targets anti-abortion organizations that are “behind websites imitating the state websites” and carrying information that appears to be of an official nature.

It provides for a penalty of up to two years in prison and a 30,000-euro fine.

Rossignol says anti-abortion activists can freely express their views as long as they “sincerely say who they are, what they do and what they want.”

Anti-abortion association Alliance Vita denounced the bill as an infringement on freedom of speech.