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Mrs. Veil delivered a speech before the French Parliament in 1974 defending a bill allowing abortion.
Agence France-Presse — Getty Images; thumbnail, Susana Vera/Reuters, 2008
Simone Veil
Died on June 30, 2017 at age 89
Ms. Veil, an Auschwitz survivor, was health minister of France and championed the 1975 law that legalized abortion in that country. She was also the first woman to be chosen president of the European Parliament.
Notable Deaths 2017
Remembering Mary Tyler Moore, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lewis, David Rockefeller, Trisha Brown, Glen Campbell, Dick Gregory, Edith Windsor, Sam Shepard, Tom Petty and many others who died this year.