Born in 1924, Neuwirth joined the French Resistance in 1940 and was arrested by the Vichy police. He later escaped through Spain.[1] He was in London in 1944, where he discovered birth control which was then banned from France.[2] 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.[1][3]
After the war, Neuwirth joined the Rally of the French People and was elected to the Saint-Étienne city council.[2] During his time in office he learned of the problems caused by unwanted births.[1] As a member of the military reserve force, he spent some time in Algiers around 1958 and helped in the negotiations which led to the end of the French Fourth Republic.[1]
He was elected to the French National Assembly in 1958.[4] 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.[1] He faced a violent opposition in his political family, notably the government, and successfully pleaded his case to General De Gaulle himself.[1] The Neuwirth Law was finally voted with left-wing support[2] on 19 December 1967.[5]
Neuwirth remained in the National Assembly until the pink wave of 1981 and was elected to the Senate in 1983.[4] His main cause in his last years was palliative care, for which he supported two laws in 1995[1] and in 1999.[2] He died in Paris on 26 November 2013 aged 89.[1]
