Condoms will be provided for free to children in French pharmacies, President Emmanuel Macron announced on Twitter on Friday.
Following a decision to make condoms free for all people aged between 18 and 25 on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron said that he would extend the handout to minors as well.
Speaking in a video posted on Twitter, Macron said that, after the announcement of free condoms for 18-25-year-olds, “I was attacked by several of you that many of our young minors had sex and that they also had to be able to protect themselves, that they could have the same financial constraints.”
“We will work to extend this measure to minors… I think it’s a very good prevention policy to allow all young people to protect themselves,” he added.
According to a report from Le Figaro, Health Minister François Braun said that the policy will allow for people up to the age of 25 to be reimbursed by the government for the full purchase price at taxpayer expense. He also said that the government will not require minors to have a prescription to purchase condoms.
It was not revealed if the government will require parental consent for the reimbursement of condoms to those under the age of 18.
In addition to the announcement on condoms, Macron said that the government will extend free testing for sexually transmitted diseases as a part of a government prevention policy.
“We will continue to strengthen our health prevention policy, regular diagnoses and screenings at old ages of life, [and] go further on vaccination against certain viruses. I’m thinking of papillomavirus (HPV),” he said.
In 2018, the French government began reimbursing the cost of condoms if they were bought from a pharmacy with a prescription from a doctor, and earlier this year it made contraception free for women up to the age of 26 after previously being only free for those aged 18 or younger.
Last year, the National Assembly unanimously voted to set the age of consent in France at 15 years old. The legislation did provide a ‘Romeo and Juliet’ carveout for consensual sex between those under the age of 15 and older people if the age gap between the two is under five years.
The law would not have criminalised the relationship between Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte, who is 24 years his senior and began dating him when he was just 16 and she was his drama teacher.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
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