By SUZANNE DALEY

RAPPES, France -- The students stopping in at the high school infirmary on a recent morning
here were making their usual requests: Some wanted aspirin. Others cold medicine. One just
wanted a place to cry because she had flunked a math test.

Soon, however -- as soon as the nurse here gets her supply -- students will also be able to
pick up morning-after pills.

Last month, France became the first country in the world to give its school nurses the right
to dispense emergency contraception pills. The pills are to be available in both high schools
and junior high schools, where students are as young as 12. Although the nurses are advised to
make efforts to inform the child's parents, they do not have to.

French health and education officials hope the policy will help lower unwanted pregnancies
among teenagers and reduce the country's abortion rate, among the highest in the European
Union, and stubbornly so, as it has not dropped despite the easier availability of
contraception in the past decade.

The measure has found wide support here.

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