![]() ![]() After ten years of lobbying, a new law in 1967 enabled the production and sale of contraceptives. First, from the creation of the first French birth control association in 1956 to the legalisation of contraception in 1967, information was gradually framed as a way to limit backstreet abortions and guarantee the happiness of families, as new contraception experts managed to separate information from anti-natalist propaganda. It also placed information at the centre of collective actions: various actors contested the interdiction and contributed to defining a legitimate – if not legal – widespread dissemination of information about contraception. Outlawing propaganda shaped the public discourse on birth control. The French legislation implied a specific construction of common knowledge of contraceptives and impacted the politics of information and communication about contraception. The French situation from the 1920s to the 1960s was, then, very different from contexts such as Britain, where information on contraceptive methods for married couples was spread freely by birth control organisations, the mass media and bestselling books. The text prohibited the circulation of any kind of book, writing, print, poster, drawing, image or advertisement ‘describing or offering to reveal’ methods preventing pregnancy. Information about birth control was initially made illegal in France after the First World War, by the 1920 law forbidding the inducing of abortion, the sale of contraceptives and the spread of ‘anti-conception propaganda’. The focus on information enables a better understanding of such a shift and adds to the complexity of the ‘sexual revolution’. While the history of the liberalisation of contraception and abortion in France has been covered by several studies, ![]() The period is characterised by a major shift: the legalisation of contraception (1967) and abortion (1975) after a long-term interdiction against these practices on the grounds of fear of population decrease. ![]() ![]() The politics of information from the 1950s to the 1980s is a revealing point of entry for studying contraception in France. Finally, the article describes the change of state communication policies in the mid-1970s, leading to the first national campaign on contraception launched in 1981, which defined information as a task that women should take on. It then shows how, after 1968, communication on contraception became a power struggle carried out by various actors (sexologists and feminist and leftist activists) and how the dissemination of information about contraception was thought of as a way to challenge moral and social values. It first shows how birth control activists challenged the legal interdiction against communicating about contraception (1956–67) without questioning the natalist obligation. Drawing from government archives, social movement archives and media coverage, the article focuses on the way the propaganda ban contributed to shaping the public debate on contraception as well as lastingly impacting the ability of the state to communicate on the subject. This article takes seriously the aim of the French state to prevent the circulation of information for demographic reasons. While contraception was legalised in 1967 and abortion in 1975, ‘anti-natalist propaganda’ remained forbidden. In 1920 in France, a law was passed prohibiting abortion, the sale of contraceptives and ‘anti-conception propaganda’. ![]()
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