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A Royal Veto Keeps Abortion Illegal in Monaco
New Lines Magazine, December 12, 2025
Women from Monaco may cross into neighboring France to obtain an abortion, as they have for decades, but within the borders of the Principality, the procedure will remain out of reach — prohibited not by medicine, lawmakers or public opinion, but by the monarchy’s religious architecture. Read
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The Pelicot Trial Exposes France’s Jury Problem
Jacobin Magazine, October 15, 2025
In France, 88% of rape cases are tried without a peer jury. The trial of Gisèle Pelicot’s 51 rapists exposed what’s lost when justice becomes an expert affair — and what happens when ordinary people finally return to the courtroom. Read
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Gisèle Pelicot’s pedagogy of justice
Prospect Magazine, October 13, 2025
A retrial in the landmark French mass rape case is a lesson in how rape survivors are retraumatised in court. Read
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Epstein’s birthday book and the girls with no names
Prospect Magazine, September 17, 2025
In all the noise about the (in)famous signatories of Jeffrey Epstein’s “birthday book,” we lost sight of what this book actually is. It is not a meme or a punchline or a political prop, but an artefact of the misogyny and abuse that very real girls—now women—lived through. Read
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Womb for Improvement — A History of Medical Instruments
New Lines Magazine: In Focus, February 20, 2025
My 2024 piece on the tenaculum forceps, adapted from a Civil War-era bullet extractor, was made into a video article. Watch
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Liberty, Equality, Sorority — Finding Sisterhood at the Pelicot Rape Trial
New Lines Magazine, November 27, 2024
Gisèle Pelicot’s decision to make public the horrific details of her abuse has transformed her into a reluctant icon, galvanizing a movement of collective reckoning. The mass rape trial taking place in Avignon is not just a pursuit of justice; it is a crucible of solidarity and sisterhood. Read
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Window to the Womb — Ultrasound and the Emergence of the ‘Fetal Personhood’ Movement
New Lines Magazine, October 25, 2024
In 1984, a graphic anti-abortion film turned ultrasound into a political weapon, casting the fetus as a victim. That “window to the womb” triggered a dramatic shift in the U.S. abortion debate, reshaping public perception of fetal life and death—and laid the groundwork for modern fetal personhood laws. Read
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At Your Cervix — The Medical Instrument Behind 135 Years of Women’s Pain
New Lines Magazine, May 24, 2024
In 1889, French surgeon Samuel Pozzi, inspired by an American Civil War-era bullet extractor, invented an instrument to ease gynecological exams and provide better care for women. Despite causing debilitating pain, it is still used worldwide 135 years later. Read
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Marie-Andrée Schwindenhammer : les débuts médiatiques d’une pionnière de la transidentité
Retronews, 11 avril 2024
Marie-Andrée Schwindenhammer naît assignée homme en 1909. Militante pionnière de la transidentité dès les années 1960, elle se fait d’abord connaître dans l’entre-deux-guerres pour de menus larcins qui, alliés à la personnalité de l’accusée, font les gorges chaudes des journaux. Lire
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L’histoire de Marie-Andrée Schwindenhammer, pionnière de la cause trans
Têtu• Magazine, 29 mars 2024
Fondatrice dès 1965 de la première association trans en France, Marie-Andrée Schwindenhammer eut une vie rocambolesque qui la mena des champs de bataille à la prison, puis aux cabarets de Paris où elle a connu Coccinelle et Bambi. Lire
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Argentine : les Mères de la place de Mai menacées de disparition par Javier Milei
Causette, 26 mars 2024
Ce dimanche 24 mars, à Buenos Aires, plusieurs dizaines de milliers de manifestant·es se sont rassemblé·es pour dire leur soutien aux Mères de la place de Mai, qui recherchent inlassablement leurs enfants disparu·es pendant la dictature. Pour la première fois depuis plus de quarante ans, leur mouvement est menacé par le gouvernement négationniste de Javier Milei, qui tente de les bâillonner et a annulé leur émission Madres de la Plaza. Lire
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“In the U.S., a Girl Can Make Her Dreams Come True!”
France-Amérique Magazine, March 2024
For many years, Marinette Pichon was France’s top goal scorer. The former national team captain was also the first French female soccer player to sign a professional contract when she joined the Philadelphia Charge in 2002. Now working as a coach in Quebec, Marinette Pichon continues to campaign for women’s sports and LGBTQ+ rights on both sides of the Atlantic. Read
Diane de VIGNEMONT 