This article is more than 11 months old

This article is more than 11 months old

Tens of thousands of people have marched in Paris to protest against a new law allowing lesbian couples and single women the right to conceive children with medical help.

The bill is Emmanuel Macron’s first major social reform: a law to end discrimination over women’s reproductive rights by allowing lesbian couples and single women access to medically-assisted procreation, such as IVF and sperm donation.

“Where is my dad?” read some signs as traditional Catholic groups, far-right activists and others passed the French senate and marched in southern Paris on Sunday. Many chanted: “Liberty, Equality, Paternity”, a play on the national French motto. Some shouted: “Everyone needs a father.”

One demonstrator in his 40s said: “We’ll fight to stop children being conceived without a father, you don’t make children in laboratories.”

Many of the protesters had also been active in the large protest movement against same-sex marriage seven years ago. In 2013, the legalisation of same-sex marriage in France was unique among its European neighbours in sparking months of large street demonstrations, which saw violent clashes between far-right groups and riot police and led to a rise in homophobic attacks.

The protesters on Sunday included pensioners and couples with young children. A handful of politicians from Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party were present, as well as a few from the mainstream right’s Les Républicains, which is divided on the issue.

The turnout was lower than for the 2013 rallies but organisers said they were encouraged by the size of the march and planned further demonstrations.

“This protest is a warning to the government,” said Ludovine de la Rochère, the head of La Manif Pour Tous group.

Last month, the lower house of the French parliament approved the draft bioethics law which would allow lesbian and single women to conceive children with medical help. The bill must now be approved by the upper house, or senate, before it can be passed.

Currently in French law, only heterosexual couples who have been married or living together for more than two years have the right to access procedures such as in vitro fertilisation, artificial insemination or sperm donation. The centrist government wants to extend this right to all women by passing the new law before the summer.

An opinion poll for Ifop last month found more than 65% of French people support extending the right to IVF and assisted procreation to single women and lesbians.