A French history and geography teacher has been suspended for showing his students a video that includes footage of real late-term abortions performed at a Spanish facility. The teacher had also provided material arguing in favour of abortion.

Mr Philippe Isnard, a civics instructor at Iscles High School in the city of Manosque, was suspended for four months last November.

While Mr Isnard accepts that the content of the video was deeply disturbing, he insists that he warned his pupils that it was “hard to view,” and allowed those who did not wish to see the video to leave.

“I encouraged all my students to express themselves freely, with respect and tolerance for all. But,” he continued, “when it comes to the sad case of abortion, it is forbidden to describe the facts, to take science into account, and to argue with precision and critical sense,” Mr Isnard said.

A disciplinary hearing took place the this month after an investigation into the episode. The committee will make a non-binding decision as to whether Mr Isnard should be permanently removed from the national education administration.

Mr Isnard asked the European Centre for Law and Justice, a group which defends religious freedom, to testify in his favour. It is expected to be several weeks before a decision is reached.

Mr Isnard reportedly followed the video presentation with an anti-abortion pamphlet. He also held a discussion following the viewing.

The video was apparently a French-subtitled version of a news report by an undercover reporter for the Spanish television network Intereconomia TV.

The reporter entered an abortion clinic disguised as a doctor, and filmed what he saw. It includes late term abortions of babies around 20 weeks of gestation, who are afterward thrown into the garbage.

A report in local newspaper La Provence led the French education minister to denounce the teacher’s alleged actions. “What has happened is unacceptable. Professors are under obligation to respect neutrality, and to have respect for the person,” said Minister Luc Chatel, promising sanctions would be applied.

The teacher, who remains anonymous, was accused of having organised a one-sided debate with his class of 15 year olds, who were said to have been “obliged” to stay while gory anti-abortion footage was being shown, without prior notice. Local reports added that he refused to respond to a summons from the school directors.

When the affair broke in the French national press on Monday, making headlines on national radio and TV shows, no reaction came from the accused teacher, who had not been contacted by the local press, nor by the school authorities.

He says he only heard about the public outcry and his own suspension when he was contacted by a major television network on Wednesday evening, following a traffic accident in which his son was seriously injured.