France: contraception now free for women up to 25 years old
Condom, pill, IUD, rings, implants, how to choose contraception?
iStock / TanyaJoy
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
To counter its "
decline
", contraception will now be free for women up to 25 years and not only reserved for minors, announced Thursday the French Minister of Health, Olivier Véran.
Advertising
Read more
“
I have observed, in conjunction with the scientific authorities, a decline in contraception in a certain number of young women, and the first reason is a renunciation for financial reasons.
"This is how the Minister of Health Olivier Véran justified this decision to extend free
contraception
on the France 2 television channel."
It is unbearable that women cannot protect themselves, cannot have contraception , when they choose to do so, of course, because it costs them too much in their budget,
”he lamented.
"
There will be support for hormonal contraception, the biological assessment that can go with it, the prescription consultation and all the care that is related to this contraception up to 25 years,
" said the Minister.
►Also read: Male contraception exists, even if it is not well known
Cost of this expansion of free access from January 1: 21 million euros per year, explained Olivier Véran.
The bar was set at 25 because "
it is an age which corresponds, in terms of economic, social and income
" to "
more autonomy"
, added the minister.
“
This is also the age when we will definitively leave the complementary health care system in our home.
"
Decrease in the use of abortion
Since 2013, contraception was already free for young girls aged 15 to 18.
A measure that is undoubtedly not unrelated to the sharp drop in the rate of use of voluntary terminations of pregnancy (abortion) for this age group, which fell from 9.5 to 6 per 1000 between 2012 and 2018.
Since August 2020, the measure has even been extended to those under 15.
“
Each year, the government had justified at the end of 2019, nearly 1,000 young girls aged 12 to 14 are pregnant in France
” and “
among these pregnancies, 770 end in abortion
”.
(
with AFP
)
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
France
Health and medicine
Women
Sexuality
Society