Simone Veil, DBE (French pronunciation: [simɔn vɛj] ); 13 July 1927 – 30 June 2017) was a French lawyer and politician who served as Minister of Health under Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, President of the European Parliament and member of the Constitutional Council of France.

A survivor from the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp where she lost part of her family, she was the Honorary President of the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah. She was elected to the Académie française in November 2008. She was best known for pushing forward the law legalizing abortion in France on 17 January 1975.

Veil passed away on 30 June 2017 at the age of 89.

Early years

Veil was born Simone Annie Liline Jacob, the daughter of a Jewish architect in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France. In March 1944, Veil's family was deported, Simone, her mother and one sister, Milou, to Auschwitz-Birkenau then Bergen-Belsen where her mother Yvonne died shortly before the camp's 15 April 1945 liberation. Veil's father and brother also died; they are last known to have been sent on a transport to Lithuania. Veil's other sister, Denise, who had been arrested as a member of the Resistance survived her imprisonment in Ravensbrück. Milou died in a car crash in the 1950s. Veil returned to speak at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 2005 for the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the camps.

Having obtained her baccalauréat in 1943 before being deported, she began the study of law and political science at Sciences Po and at the University of Paris, where she met her future husband Antoine Veil. The couple married on 26 October 1946, and have three sons, Jean, Nicolas, and Pierre Francois. Antoine Veil died on 12 April 2013, at the age of 86 after 66 years of marriage.

Veil became an attorney and worked for several years as a civil servant in the Ministry of Justice.

Political career

Ministry of Justice

Having graduated from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris with a law degree, she renounced her career as a lawyer, and in 1956, successfully passed the national examination to become a magistrate. Veil then entered and held a senior position at the National Penitentiary Administration under the Ministry of Justice where she was responsible for judicial affairs and improved women's prison conditions and treatment of incarcerated women. She abandoned this post in 1964 to become director of civil affairs during which she improved French women's general rights and status. She successfully achieved the right to dual parental control of family legal matters and adoptive rights for women. In 1970, she became secretary general of the Supreme Council of the Magistracy (Conseil supérieur de la magistrature).

Minister of Health

From 1974 to 1979 she was Minister of Health in the governments of prime ministers Jacques Chirac and Raymond Barre. She pushed forward the following notable laws:

• Making access to contraception easier (4 December 1974) – the sale of contraceptives such as the combined oral contraceptive pill were made legal in 1967.
• Legalizing abortion in France (17 January 1975), her hardest political fight, and the one for which she is best known. The abortion debate was a particularly difficult time as those in favor of keeping abortion illegal launched personal and aggressive attacks against Veil and her family. However, since the passing of the law, many have paid tribute to Veil and thanked her for her courageous and determined fight.

European Parliament

Veil was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in the 1979 European election. In its first session, the new Parliament elected Veil as its President, which she served as until 1982. As well as being the first president of the elected Parliament, she was the first female President since the Parliament was created in 1952. In 1981, Veil won the prestigious Charlemagne Prize. She was re-elected in the 1984 election and became the leader of the Liberal Democrat group until 1989. She was re-elected for the last time in the 1989 election, standing down in 1993.

Between 1984 and 1992 she served on the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, and the Committee on Political Affairs. After standing down from these committees she served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and its related Subcommittee on Human Rights. Between 1989 and 1993 she was also a member of Parliament's delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, serving as its vice-chairwoman until 1992.

Return to French Government

From 1993 to 1995 Veil was again a member of the cabinet, serving as Minister of State and Minister of Health, Social Affairs and the City in the government of Prime Minister Édouard Balladur.

Member of the Constitutional Council

In 1998, she was appointed to the Constitutional Council of France. In 2005, she put herself briefly on leave from the Council in order to campaign in favour of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. This action was criticized, because it seems to contradict the legal provisions that members of the council should keep a distance from partisan politics: the independence and impartiality of the council would be jeopardized, critics said, if members can put themselves "on leave" in order to campaign for such or such project. In response to this opposition, Veil challenged the attacks claiming that she, the President of the Constitutional Council and colleagues had deliberated on the issue beforehand and they had given her permission to take her leave without having to resign. Being a staunch supporter of the European project, she believed others should not "ignore the historical dimension of European integration".

Honors and other activities

In 1998, she was awarded an honorary damehood by the British government.

In 2003, she was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Criminal Court's Trust Fund for Victims.

In 2005 she was awarded with the Prince of Asturias Award in International Cooperation.

In 2007, she was awarded the North-South Prize of the Council of Europe.

In 2007, Veil surprised many observers by declaring her support for the neo-conservative presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy. She was by his side on the day after he received 31 percent of the vote in the first round of the presidential elections that year.

Veil entered the Académie française in 2008, the sixth woman ever to do so. Veil joined the Academy's forty "immortals" at their 13th seat, originally the seat of Jean Racine. Her induction address was given in March 2010 by Jean d'Ormesson. On her sword, given to her as to every other immortal, is engraved her Auschwitz number (number 78651), the motto of the French Republic (liberté, égalité, fraternité) and the motto of the European Union (Unis dans la diversité).

In 2008 she won the Charles V Prize, awarded by the Fundación Academia Europea de Yuste in honor of "her acknowledged merits in the struggle for the advancement of women's equality."

In 2010 she received the Coudenhove-Kalergi Badge by the Europa-Union Münster.

She also participates as jury member for the Conflict Prevention Prize awarded every year by the Fondation Chirac.

She was awarded the Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur, the Order's highest degree, in 2012.

Political career mandates

Governmental functions

• Minister of Health: 28 May 1974 – 29 March 1977
• Minister of Health and Social Security: 29 March 1977 – 3 April 1978
• Minister of Health and Family: 3 April 1978 – 4 July 1979
• Minister of State, Minister of Social Affairs, Health and City: 31 March 1993 – 16 May 1995

Electoral mandates

• President of European Parliament: 1979–1982 (Elected member in 1979)
• Member of European Parliament: 1982–1984
• Chair of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party: July 1984 – July 1989

Other functions

• Member of the Constitutional Council of France: March 1998 – March 2007
• President of the Shoah Foundation: 2000–2007 (Honorary President since 2007)
• Member of the Board of Directors of the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI)