French gov't backs away from defending women's rights

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SOCIALIST ACTION JANUARY 1992 7 Since 1974, reimbursement for French women using contraception has been a right recognized by law, as has the possi bility of abortion up to the 10th week of pregnancy. (Under the French scheme of socialized medicine, the cost of specific medicines and medical services is reimbursed to users by the Social Security office.)

Seventeen years later, however, it is not clear that this law is being applied. Nearly 4 million women take the pill, but 2 million do so in a form that is not—or is no longer-reimbursed.

At the end of November, Premier Edith Cresson promised that the two new pills would soon be reimbursed, and there were similar statements by Secretary of State for Women's Rights Veronique Neierzt. However, the government's negligence in this area-and the upsurge of fundamentalist and reactionary activists of every stripepresent grave threats to women's right to choose and to women's health in general.

Since 1984, a growing number of new contraceptive pills have not been covered some of the older brands is no longer reimbursed. Why?

The drug companies are playing upon the ambiguity of the law, which says that "contraception must be reimbursed" but doesn't give the state the means of paying for it. They do not want the new pills included on the Social Security reimbursement list.

Thus, there is no reimbursement of the new-generation pills. The latter have smaller dosages of estrogen, which is responsible for secondary effects on women (notably cardiovascular illnesses). They utilize new progestationals, which are claimed to be less harmful to women's health.

The argument put forward by the drug companies is controversial. Some specialists maintain that it has not been shown that the new pills significantly reduce these "secondary effects."

Drug companies' profit drive Why are the drug companies pursuing this policy? In France, the prices of drugs that are not reimbursed are not subject to control. But medicines that are reimbursed are fixed and controlled by the authorities. It has been clear for a decade that the manufacturers prefer non-reimbursement to a price they consider too low.

According to several studies, the consumption of contraceptives does not seem to depend on whether they are covered by Social Security.

How could it be otherwise? The pill is the primary means of contraception used by women (one woman in three takes the pill). Given the profusion of pills available, they only very rarely are in a position to insist that their doctors prescribe a specific pill to suit their needs—or their pocketbooks.

Obviously, the drug companies will always seek to maximize their profits. There is no reason why they should behave differently for contraceptives. What is more serious is the failure of the government to apply a law that in practice is being mocked.

However, this reflects the line being followed by the Socialist Party government. For example, under the decentralization policy initiated in 1983, management of information and planning centers—often the sole sources of information for young people and for a majority of women-have been transferred to regional councils. This has accentuated social inequalities in the provision of these services, and even threatened the survival of the centers.

The government's gradual disengagement from supporting contraception, along with its cutbacks in healthcare-both in reducing the provision of medicines and in eliminating hospital beds and personnelis an insidious challenge to women's right to freely choose materity. In this area, as in healthcare in general, a two-track system is being instituted—one system for women who can pay, and another for those who cannot.

Inspired by Operation Rescue This policy is being applied in a context of social and economic rundown, in which the influence of fundamentalist and far-right groups is growing. (For example, the National Front of Jean-Marie Le Pen is expected to take 25 to 30 percent of the vote in the regional elections scheduled for March 1992.)

Taking the offensive, these far-right groups (the most important are the Truce of God and the SOS-Little Ones), even if they have few members, are gradually extending their influence through media coverage, manipulation, and infiltration into broad sectors of society.

For example, during its May 1, 1991, demonstration, Jean-Marie Le Pen called for a minute of silence "in memory of the millions of French children murdered by the Veil-Chirac abortion law."

Taking their inspiration from Operation Rescue in the United States, some of these groups have been attacking abortion centers for nearly two years now. Some prefer to sing hymns outside the centers and hospitals or to distribute leaflets denouncing the "crime" that abortion represents in their eyes. Others enter the operating theaters, contaminate the materials, and chain themselves to the operating tables.

They all have the same goal — to create a feeling of terror among women who come for an abortion, and above all a feeling of guilt.

The government has remained silent about all this. Despite the complaints registered by hospital directors and the testimony of nurses, the attackers have not been brought to justice.

It is perhaps not by chance that the government seems still less anxious to denounce these commando raids than it is to begin a policy of reimbursing the cost of the two new pills. Its health policy, which involves a hospital reform introducing a logic of profitability and decentralization, will lead to reducing the operating capacity of the abortion centers— if it does not lead to closing them outright The goverment's condemnation of the drug companies is, in fact, a way of avoiding having to defend its own policy.

At the end of 1990, a united-front coordinating committee, bringing together women's groups, trade unions, political parties and associations-including the French Family Planning Movement (MFPF)—was set up to mobilize public opinion on the question and make the government accept its responsibilities. A national petition was launched in June 1991, with committees being set up in various cities.

A national day of action was called for Nov. 30, 1991, to prepare general assemblies on the right to choose on Jan. 18-19 Of course, there will be a mobilization on March 8, International Women's Day.

(This article is taken from the Dec. 9 issue of International Viewpoint. biweekly English-language journal of the United Secretariat of the Fourth Internarional.)

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• The classic example is the transforma-