French girls are getting the morning-after pill in school – and their parents are livid, fearing it will encourage them to sleep around.
“We’re worried that sex could become trivialized,” said Marie-Christine Molinari, head of one parents group.
“We think the school’s role is education – giving the pill at school is not giving education,” she said.
In a bid to curb teen pregnancies – the age of consent in France is 15 – the Education Ministry has ordered school nurses to stock the morning-after NorLevo and give it to girls who have unprotected sex.
The treatment, which should be available in the next few weeks, consists of two pills, one taken within 72 hours of sexual intercourse and the second 12 to 24 hours after that.
Deputy Education Minister Segolene Royal said teen pregnancies are not just a family matter but a public-health problem that affects 10,000 girls under 18 each year.
“I want to respond to this distress, to this urgency,” she said.
Teachers’ unions and family-planning officials hailed the decision, but PEEP, the main association of parents of children in state schools, attacked it.
“We are worried because this pill risks making unprotected sex routine,” said association president Christian Janet.
Conservative politicians saw the move as a further erosion of parental rights.
Christine Boutin, a leading member of the center-right UDF opposition, said it amounted to “social, medical and ethical fraud.”
But French teens welcomed the decision, saying it bypasses the home and the moral debate surrounding the issue.
“You can’t talk to some parents about these things. Going to the school nurse will be like talking to someone anonymous,” said 15-year-old Charlotte Reibell.
“I’m not advising young girls to go out and have sex and then take the pill. But if they are going to make a mistake, then it’s better that they can fix it,” said Laure Sauvagnargues, 19.
Vanessa Defforge, 18, pointed to the traditional mores in France, where two-thirds of the population is Roman Catholic.
“The French are very repressed,” she said.
U.S. teens can get morning-after pills at most health or family-planning clinics, but they need prescriptions and, depending on the state, sometimes also must obtain parental permission.