The Manifesto of the 343 (French: Manifeste des 343) is a French petition penned by Simone de Beauvoir, and signed by 343 women, all publicly declaring that they had had an illegal abortion. The manifesto was published under the title, "Un appel de 343 femmes" ('an appeal by 343 women'), on 5 April 1971, in issue 334 of Le Nouvel Observateur, a social democratic French weekly magazine. The piece was the sole topic on the magazine cover.[1][2] At the time abortion was illegal in France, and by admitting publicly to having aborted, women exposed themselves to criminal prosecution.[citation needed]
The manifesto called for the legalization of abortion and free access to contraception. It paved the way for the "Veil Act" — named for Health Minister Simone Veil — which repealed the penalty for voluntarily terminating a pregnancy. The law was passed in December 1974 and January 1975, and afforded women the ability to abort during the first ten weeks (later extended to fourteen weeks).
nouvelobs/20071127.OBS7018/343 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).