The free pill for girls aged 15 to 18 goes into effect on March 31. Minors must provide a doctor’s prescription to their pharmacist.
Candidate Hollande had promised it, his government did. From March 31, 100% coverage of contraception for minors and free abortion for all women will be effective. Parliament voted for these two provisions last October. A free contraception which will have to obey certain conditions during the delivery.
Concretely, free contraception for those under 18 will apply to first and second generation pills. Reimbursed up to 65% so far, the IUD and the implant will also and now be fully covered.
The vaginal ring, the contraceptive patch, the cervical cap and the condoms will still not be reimbursed. The same goes for the 3rd and 4th generation pills.
As a result, from next week, young teenage girls will be able to go to any pharmacy to have a first or second generation pill delivered free of charge. On one condition, however: these young minors must present a doctor’s prescription to their pharmacist. Prescription which is not free because it requires a paying consultation with a prescribing doctor. The minor must also provide her pharmacist with a vital card (hers or that of her parents) or a certificate of affiliation to a social security scheme. If the girl is unable to provide one of these documents, the pharmacist can make an exception and use the patient’s National Directory Identification Number (NIR) to deliver her contraceptive. Moreover, if the teenager wishes to remain anonymous in these steps, this is possible, but she will have to indicate it to her pharmacist. No free delivery of pills will be possible for girls under the age of 15.
A new law, with which the government hopes to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies in France, but also abortions. As a reminder, in a report submitted to the previous government in February 2012 on adolescent sexuality, Professor Israel Nisand had pointed to the increase in the number of IVGs among minors: 8,700 in 1990, 11,700 in 2009. The head of the the gynecology department of the Strasbourg University Hospital presented the measure of free contraception as a means of reducing the use of IVGs and of responding to social inequalities. Young people without a diploma are, in fact, more represented among those excluded from contraception.
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