The French government has approved a bill which seeks to outlaw websites working to dissuade women from seeking abortion. The bill, aimed at sites which it says “deliberately mislead, intimidate and/or exert psychological or moral pressure to discourage recourse to abortion” was hotly debated in parliament and opposed by pro-life groups and the French Catholic Bishops before it ultimately passed, setting it on track for a final vote in the Senate. Archbishop Georges Pontier of Marseille slammed the Bill as a “very serious attack on the principles of democracy”, while Christian Democratic Party member Jean-Frederic Poisson accused the government of double standards for banning sites offering an alternative to abortion but not “jihadist websites”.