The free contraceptive pill from 12 years is getting closer in France. The Government of Emmanuel Macron wants to extend the free of contraceptive methods to those under 15 , according to the AFP agency. A measure that will surely be controversial among the most conservative and Catholic sectors in France.

If the draft bill for the financing of French Social Security for 2020 is approved, French minors from twelve years of age will be able to access contraceptives at no cost to them. Paris also wants, in parallel, to strengthen sex education in schools so that young people are better informed.

Since 2013, the pill and other contraceptives are free in France for young women between 15 and 17 years of age presenting a medical prescription and social security card. Young people do not need to ask for their parents' consent for medical consultation or to obtain contraceptives at the pharmacy and they are guaranteed medical secrecy if they wish.

Currently, to benefit from this measure, young French people from 15 years of age must go to a doctor or a midwife to prescribe the most appropriate contraceptives for them and present the prescription at the pharmacy. The pharmacist gives them contraceptives without having to advance their cost and in all confidentiality, as explained in a French Social Security website for young people.

The objective of extending this measure to children under 15 years is to avoid unwanted pregnancies among minors and reduce the number of abortions among this sector of the population. Each year, about 1,000 young French women between 12 and 14 years of age become pregnant in France, of which 770 of them end up having abortions, as the draft bill specifies.

Pay from your own pocket

The French Government considers that the fact that children under 15 years of age have to pay for the purchase of contraceptives from their own pocket can stop their access to them, since many children are afraid or ashamed to talk about sex with their parents or ask them Money to buy the pill or condoms.

The Government of Macron trusts that with the free contraceptives from 12 years old, the number of pregnancies and abortions among minors will decrease, as it happened when this measure was launched in 2013 for minors between 15 and 17 years.

France also wants to expand sex education at school, as many young people receive confusing and contradictory information about relationships, sex and contraceptive methods. Many young people are informed about sex on the Internet and every time they access porn on the net before.

Of the 759,000 children born in France in 2018, 12,000 had a mother under 20, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE). Of them, 77 babies had a mother of 14 years and seven of them of 13 years.

The pill, authorized in France since 1967, remains the most commonly used method of contraception by French women, followed by the intrauterine device (IUD) with or without hormones and condoms.

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