Chemical submission detection kits will be reimbursed by Health Insurance “in several departments”on an experimental basis and according to a timetable yet to be defined, Prime Minister Michel Barnier announced on Monday, in the middle of the Mazan rape trial.
This case with international resonance, where around fifty men are accused of having raped a woman, Gisèle Pelicot, drugged by her husband, “will mark a before and an after”said the Prime Minister, on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
This file “raises the still little-known question of chemical submission and we are all awaiting the outcome of this trial with great attention”said Michel Barnier, traveling to the Women’s House at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Paris.
Chemical subjugation consists of the administration of psychoactive substances to an individual, often a woman, without their knowledge, for purposes including assault and rape.
The government relaunched a mission on the subject in October, entrusted to RDSE senator Véronique Guillotin and Modem deputy Sandrine Josso. The latter had notably recommended that pharmacies be able to issue, on medical prescription, to women who believe they have been drugged, a “detection kit” or “morning after kit” with “bottles for collecting urine”useful addresses and “all the steps to follow” to access the evidence.
The fight against violence against women is a “very long way”underlined Michel Barnier. “We must go further because this path is not finished”.
Prime Minister Michel Barnier speaks with members of the staff of the Maison des femmes, at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Paris, November 25, 2024 / Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP
The Prime Minister confirmed that the government would implement several measures to improve the fight against violence against women. It plans to provide each department with a women’s center by 2025 and to extend the system allowing women victims of sexual violence to file a complaint in a hospital with an emergency or gynecological department – measure announced on Monday morning by the Secretary of State for Equality between Women and Men, Salima Saa.