France To Make Condoms Free For Young Adults In 2023

French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that 18- to 25-year-olds will be able to get condoms for free at pharmacies. This is to try to stop young people from getting pregnant without wanting to.

During a discussion about health with young people in Fontaine-le-Comte, a suburb of Poitiers in western France, Macron said, "It's a small revolution for birth control."

The move comes after the government started giving all women under 25 free birth control this year. This was an expansion of a program for women under 18 meant to make sure that young women don't stop using birth control because they can't afford it.

Condoms are already covered by the national health care system if a doctor or midwife prescribes them. This is done to stop the spread of AIDS and other diseases that are spread through sexual contact.

In general about sexual education, "We don't know much about this subject. The theory is very, very different from how things are in real life. It's an area where we need to teach our teachers a lot more ", Macron said.

Macron wore a face mask to the conference and said he was following "health ministry guidelines." The government is still thinking about how to respond to a rise in COVID cases before the holidays, but mask laws have not been brought back yet.

"In light of the new spread of the disease," he said, "I think it's good to set an example because we don't always want to go back to overall mandates."

Officials are urging people to wear masks in crowded venues and to get COVID vaccine booster shots as winter approaches.