FRANCE TO OFFER FREE CONTRACEPTION TO WOMEN UNDER 25

Fri 10 September 2021:

From next year, young French women under the age of 25 will be offered free contraception, according to the country’s health minister.

Medical appointments, pills, tests, and any other medical treatments connected to birth control will be free for all women under the age of 25.

“This will cover hormonal contraception, biological tests that go with it, the prescription of contraception and all care related to this contraception up until the age of 25,” Olivier Véran said.

The decision was made when the authorities saw a significant drop in contraception use among particular age groups, with many people admitting that the cause was purely financial.

“There is a decline in the use of contraception among a certain number of young women and the main reason for this is financial. It costs too much. It is unacceptable that women cannot protect themselves, cannot have contraception if that’s their choice obviously, because they cannot afford it,” Véran explained.

Another reason the government picked 25 as the age limit is that beyond that age, young people are no longer covered by their parents’ complementary health insurance, called in France as mutuelle.

Experts believe that as a result, women have been opting out of contraception because they fear it is becoming too costly for them.

This new scheme will cost the Assurance Maladie, the French government’s health system, roughly €21 million per year.

Last year, the government discovered that roughly 1,000 girls aged 12 to 14 had become pregnant, with 770 of them opting for abortion.

Contraception has been free for women aged 15 to 18 since 2013, and it has been extended to children under the age of 15 since August 2020. The number of abortions in the country has decreased as a result of this campaign.

The government hopes that this new project for women under the age of 25 will enable them to engage in healthy sex without jeopardizing their health.

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