The outlines of the plan to combat infertility wanted by Emmanuel Macron to “demographically rearm” France are emerging.
The government plans to generalize a gynecological examination for women at 25 and a spermogram at the same age for men, reports La Tribune Dimanche.
This would be reimbursed by social security.
“
We want to create a signal effect to tell young people
don’t ask yourself the question at 35,
” Emmanuel Macron’s entourage explains to the newspaper.
Asked about the subject on this Sunday in Political questions
(on France Inter, franceinfo and Le Monde), the Minister Delegate in charge of Equality between Women and Men, Aurore Bergé, confirmed that this approach was “supported by the Élysée” and that it was “good” .
“Infertility is first and foremost an absolute tragedy for women and men who want to have children and who cannot,” said Aurore Bergé, according to whom it is “not a gadget subject.”
According to her, infertility remains a problem that “we often talk about too late” and which “goes hand in hand with the question of our public health”.
Professional inequalities involved?
According to the minister, the primary cause of infertility is explained by the increasingly later age at which women “have children”.
According to Aurore Bergé, the cause is professional inequalities between women and men.
“We have women who say:
In fact I will wait two, five, ten years
… Until a moment when it will perhaps be too late, because they will no longer be able to have children,” continued Aurore Bergé pointing out the differences in salary trajectories.
“It is not normal that in 2024, women who want to become mothers give it up or postpone it, at the risk of no longer being able to have children.
»
Demographic “rearmament”: “We have a major issue of professional equality between women and men”, believes @auroreberge.
For the minister, "it is not normal that in 2024, women who want to be mothers postpone it or give it up."
#QuestionsPol pic.twitter.com/df72CPjJa3
— France Inter (@franceinter) January 21, 2024
Among the other factors explaining the drop in the birth rate put forward by this delegate minister: the mode of care or the question of housing.
She then addressed medically assisted procreation (PMA), which is a “difficult, painful journey punctuated with failures”, evoking the idea of leave for women engaged in the PMA journey.
On “birth leave”, the creation of which Emmanuel Macron announced last Tuesday during his press conference, Aurore Bergé assured that she wanted to put in place compensation “proportionate to the last level of income”, even if a ceiling would not allow to keep 100% of his salary.
“Parental leave doesn’t work.
There is not even 1% of fathers who use it because it is very poorly compensated,” she explained.
Also read “Demographic rearmament”: feminists revolt after Macron’s proposals against infertility
This “birth leave” as presented by Emmanuel Macron, will last six months per parent.
Aurore Bergé had already assured Sud Radio on Wednesday that the amount of compensation would go “well beyond” the 429 euros granted as part of the current parental leave.
“The idea is to give more freedom and more choice
(to parents)
.
No one will be forced to stop if they don’t want to,” she said.