Brothels ("Maisons closes") remain illegal, but operate discreetly and clandestinely. Since their official closure in 1946, there have been periodic calls for their re-opening. In 1990, (RPR), a former Minister of Health (1986-1988), suggested re-opening them in 1990 as a public health measure. A row erupted in 2002 with the proposal by Françoise de Panafieu (UMP), which divided French feminists, with Gisèle Halimi denouncing it, but Élisabeth Badinter seeing it as an issue of "the right to dispose freely of one's body".