Simone Veil
- Simone Veil should not be confused with Simone Weil, a French philosopher.
Simone Veil (born July 13, 1927) is a French lawyer and politician.
She is currently a member of the Constitutional Council of France.
She was born in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France.
A Jew, she was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau where she spent 13 months. She spoke there for the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the camps.
From 1974 to 1979 she was Minister of Health in the governments of prime ministers Jacques Chirac and Raymond Barre. Veil was the first woman cabinet minister in French history. She is remembered for pushing forward laws:
- making access to contraception easier (December 4, 1974) - the sale of contraceptives such as the contraceptive pill had been made legal in 1967;
- legalizing abortion (January 17, 1975), her hardest political fight, and the one for which she is best-known.
- She also served as President of the European Parliament after the parliament was directly elected for the first time in 1979.
- After many years in the European Parliament she returned to French government from 1993-1995 when she was Minister of State for Social Affairs, Health and Towns during the Premiership of Edouard Balladur.
In 2005 she was awarded with the Prince of Asturias Award in International Cooperation.
| Preceded by: Emilio Colombo | President of the European Parliament 1979-1982 | Followed by: Piet Dankert |
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