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care for young girls under 15

care for young girls under 15

Wednesday October 2, 2019

The government hopes that the costs of contraception for young girls under the age of 15 will be fully covered. So far, only young women over the age of 15 have received full reimbursement.

Use of emergency contraception

Girls under the age of 15 are not reimbursed for the cost of contraceptives, but also for medical consultations and laboratory tests. A new measure in the draft Social Security financing bill for 2023provides full reimbursement of contraceptive costs.

Until now, young women have found themselves in a fragile situation, forcing them to use emergency contraception and in some cases voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion). The draft law notes that around 1,000 young girls aged 12 to 14 are pregnant in France each year. In addition, 770 of these pregnancies end in abortion.

Lower abortion rate among older young women

The use of abortion dropped considerably among young women aged 15 to 17 between 2012 and 2018. According to the Drees (Directorate for Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics), the number of abortions increased from 9.5 to 6 per 1,000 young women during this period.

While 7 babies had a 13-year-old mother and 77 newborns, a 14-year-old mother in 2018, the objective of free contraception for minors is to reduce the number of early pregnancies but also abortion.

Stéphanie Haerts