News

MANOSQUE, France, November 24, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A French high school teacher in the southern region of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence has been suspended from his teaching position for showing his students a video that includes footage of real late-term abortions performed at a Spanish facility.

The teacher, a civics instructor at Iscles High School in the city of Manosque, reportedly followed the video presentation with a pamphlet distributed to the students which denounces France’s Veil Law, that legalized abortion in 1975. He also held a discussion following the viewing.

The video, was apparently a French-subtitled version of a news report by an undercover reporter for the Spanish television network Intereconomia TV. The reporter entered an abortion clinic disguised as a doctor, and filmed what he saw. It includes late term abortions of babies around 20 weeks of gestation, who are afterward thrown into the garbage.

In interviews with the French press, students described the video as “disgusting” and compared it to a horror film. One reportedly had to leave in order to throw up.

A number of parents, angered by the decision to show the video to their children, collectively demanded an end to the classes and an investigation on November 17. The teacher, who remains unnamed in press reports, was suspended from teaching for four months while the school administration investigates the affair.

French pro-life journalist Jeanne Smits, writing for the Catholic news service Chretiente.info, says that while the professor may have acted imprudently, this doesn’t change the “falsity of the objective of ‘neutrality’ declared by the superiors of the young teacher.”

“Showing the facts [about abortion] enters perfectly into the area of neutrality, or rather objectivity, and if they are disturbing that’s because there’s a rupture in the connection to that objectivity on the part of those who support the ‘right to an abortion,’” adds Smits.

The 10-minute portion of the video can be seen here. * Caution: there is an explicit late-term abortion showed near the end of this video.