The former Socialist minister and tireless activist died at age 97 on 18 August 2026. In 1982, she served as France’s minister for women’s rights from 1981 to 1986, under Socialist prime ministers Pierre Mauroy and Laurent Fabius, and secured coverage for abortion procedures through France’s national health insurance. Even after retiring, she remained outspoken, and was critical of her own party in 2012 when she told LeMonde that Socialist presidential candidate François Hollande’s platform was far too timid on gender equality. Until the end of her life, she remained a reference, a symbol, and even a star, welcomed at government offices and celebrated at feminist rallies.
Interviewed by L’Obs in February 2018, she welcomed the #MeToo movement as a “fundamental event of the 21st century and a historic milestone in feminism”. Published in 1971, that declaration demanded the right to abortion as a political issue.
SOURCE: Le Monde. https://www.lemonde.fr/en/obituaries/article/2026/08/18/yvette-roudy-pioneering-French-minister-for-women’s-rights-who secured-abortion-coverage-dies_6756638_15.html. PHOTO: Le Monde Yvette Roudy in the Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris, 27 December 2006, PHOTO by Eric Feferberg/AFP.