Tens of thousands protest French IVF law for single women, lesbians

Tens of thousands gathered in Paris on Sunday to protest the government's plan to let single women and lesbians become pregnant with fertility treatments, the country's first major social reform since France legalised gay marriage in 2013.

Waving red and green flags, a crowd estimated at around 74,500 by an independent media count marched from the French Senate toward the monolithic Tour Montparnasse skyscraper, chanting "Liberty, Equality, Paternity" -- a play on the French motto which ends with "Fraternity".

Many wore the distinctive cone-shaped red Phyrgian hats that are a symbol of the French republic.

Organisers, however, said they believed 600,000 had turned out against the law, which was approved by the lower house of parliament last month.

"For two years now our attempts at dialogue have gone nowhere... the street is the only place left for us to be heard," Ludovine de la Rochere, president of the Protest for Everyone association, told journalists Sunday.

President Emmanuel ...