Lucien Neuwirth

Lucien Neuwirth (18 May 1924 – 26 November 2013) was a French politician first elected to the French National Assembly in 1958. The eponymous Neuwirth Law legalized birth control in France on 28 December 1967.

Biography Born in 1924, Neuwirth joined the French Resistance in 1940 and was arrested by the Vichy police. He later escaped through Spain. He joined the Free French paratroopers and fought in Brittany, Belgium and the Netherlands, where he was wounded and taken prisoner in April 1945. He miraculously survived a firing squad, being only wounded by his captors.

After the war, Neuwirth joined the Rally of the French People and was elected to the Saint-Étienne city council. With some help from the French birth control movement (Mouvement français du planning familial), he wrote a law draft to legalize birth control in 1966.

Neuwirth remained in the National Assembly until the pink wave of 1981 and was elected to the Senate in 1983.