Condoms to be made free in France for 18 to 25-year-olds

French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that condoms would be made available for free in pharmacies for 18- to 25-year-olds in a bid to reduce unwanted pregnancies among young people.

“It’s a small revolution for contraception,” Macron said during a health debate with young people in Fontaine-le-Comte, a suburb of Poitiers in western France.

The move comes after the government began offering this year free birth control for all women under 25, expanding a scheme targeting under-18s to ensure young women do not stop taking contraception because they cannot afford it.

Condoms are already reimbursed by the national healthcare system if prescribed by a doctor or midwife, a measure intended to fight the spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

On sexual education overall, “we are not very good on this subject. The reality is very, very different from the theory. It’s an area where we need to much better educate our teachers”, Macron said.

Free birth control for women

Last year, the country made birth control pills free for women under the age of 25. The scheme which covers the bills of contraceptive patches, pills and Intrauterine Contraceptive Devices (IUDs), according to France24, benefited around three million women.

The country had already made contraceptives free for minors and this scheme was just an extension of the upper limit age.

A spokeswoman of a woman’s rights group called En Avant Tous told AFP, “Between 18 and 25 years old, women are very vulnerable because they lose a lot of rights compared to when they were minors and are very precarious economically.”

With inputs from agencies.

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