VITA’s answer to incidents that have occurred in 17 cities when volunteers were launching the new VITA campaign “Keep Your Hands Off My Daddy” to alert and call for action.

On Thursday, November 15, at 1 pm, Alliance VITA peacefully launched its campaign to warn the public and call for action to protest against ART without a father. In accordance with the law, the VITA regional delegations had filed declarations prior to these gatherings in each of the 70 French cities, to lawfully exercise their freedom of speech and their right to protest.

Nonetheless, without filing any prior declaration and thus illegally, counter-demonstrations were organized via social networks, at the very same place where VITA demonstrations took place. Although active police containment and surveillance varied, the counter-demonstrators committed violent acts against both property and individuals by trying to steal or destroy campaign materials, making loud noises and cries to muffle campaign speeches, insulting and even molesting some of the participants. A court complaint will be filed for the incident involving an 8-month old pregnant woman who was slapped.

Present at the peaceful campaign launch at La Défense in Paris, VITA’s General Delegate, Tugdual Derville declares:

“First of all, I want to thank all the volunteers for their pacifist participation and commitment in launching this campaign. In 53 cities, our right to peacefully demonstrate was cordially recognized and received by those passing by. In defiance of the law, small groups of militant protestors in 17 cities tried  to intimidate and silence us. I want to acknowledge and honor those participants who have endured screams, insults and even spitting or beating. This violence shows a peculiar way of thinking, dominated by a desire for unlimited power. This is exactly what we are protesting against in ART without a father. In several cities, the police themselves have admitted they were unable to control the violence of these groups. This is not a good sign for democracy. We are far from French President Macron’s promise of a “peaceful debate”! How can we accept that law-abiding citizens are being attacked by those who disrespect the law? Our peaceful tenacity remains unabashed. No one will benefit by giving up in front of pressure groups who want to ban the debate. We hope that all democrats, even those who do not share our convictions, will enthusiastically defend our right to express our opinions. As for VITA, we will not let these groups silent us.”

Faced with these attacks on freedom of speech, Alliance VITA has decided to:

• take legal action wherever violent acts have been committed;
• ask law enforcement officials how citizens’ rights to protest can be guaranteed, since prior filings of these declared gatherings were used against the participants to call for action against them;
• intensify our campaign efforts for “Keep Your Hands Off My Daddy”

On Thursday, November 15, 2018, Alliance VITA launched its new national campaign “KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY DADDY!” simultaneously in 70 cities throughout France, to warn the public and call for action.

Alliance VITA’s national and regional teams including the national chief delegates: Tugdual Derville, Caroline Roux and Blanche Streb took part in the campaign launch at “La Défense” in Paris.

The campaign message “No ART, without a father” was simultaneously launched at “La Défense” in Paris and 70 other cities in front of the emblematic “Marianne” statue representing France, clothed in black and sitting near dark blue silhouette representing a little boy. Shouldering his book bag, this little one represents future children who would be unfairly and deliberately deprived of a father. At each site, a father delivered the campaign speech, emphasizing how paternal responsibility is essential for our society. It is mostly irresponsible to suggest that men should just donate their sperm without having the least interest in their offspring. These children would consequently be severed from any paternal reference point.

In Paris, gathered around a banner, and carrying signs “For tomorrow’s children” and “Keep your hands off my Daddy!” the participants distributed envelopes containing a campaign bracelet, and they will continue to distribute them to the public in the coming weeks. According to the survey commissioned by Alliance VITA at IFOP last June, 93% of the French believe that “fathers play an essential role for children“. During the current discussions aimed at revising the French bioethics law, several ministers have announced their intention to relinquish the criterion of medical infertility, and legalizing ART, at no cost to single women or 2 females living as a couple, without a male partner. Alliance VITA has therefore decided to alert the French at all cost.

In Paris, at the national press conference, Alliance VITA’s General Delegate, Tugdual Derville, announced: “Starting tomorrow, our VITA volunteers will begin distributing information and warnings to the French, in cities and railway stations. We not only intend to rally fathers but also those who support the complementary roles of fathers and mothers, as opposed to those who deny any differences between males and females. We will also solicit members of parliament. And most importantly, our online petition is now started, to request that French President Macron renounce continuing this ART upheaval. Artificially producing children without fathers would inevitably lead to surrogacy – using a woman’s body as an object – and thus result in a national reproductive business. This business would be very similar to totalitarianism, since it would be a State-held exploitation of women’s and children’s bodies. “