Schoolgirls find morning-after pill a godsend
DOZENS of schoolgirls – some as young as 14 – have been getting the morning-after pill over the counter since prescribing rules were changed.
Latest figures show staff at Portsmouth pharmacies carried out 343 consultations with girls and women who had unprotected sex between May and December.
In total 192 of those meetings – 56 per cent – were with teenagers, and 23 girls were under 16. The youngest was 14.
Portsmouth Primary Care Trust managers decided to offer the pill free at city pharmacies last year in a bid to cut the number of teenage pregnancies.
Portsmouth has 24 per cent more teen pregnancies than the national average, with 185 girls aged between 15 and 17 falling pregnant in 2005.
Previously girls and women aged 16 and over could buy the pill from pharmacies for 25.
Now girls aged between 13 and 25 can get the pill – called Levonelle One Step – for nothing from 22 city pharmacies.
The scheme has been criticised by pro-life campaigners who claim it is encouraging young girls to have unprotected sex.
Julia Millington, political director of the Pro-Life Alliance in the south-east, said: 'It's a tragedy that more young women are taking up the opportunity to have easier access to the morning-after pill.
'The emphasis seems to be on dealing with the possible consequences of having casual sex.'
But Portsmouth City Council's adolescent health programme manager Charlotte Bemand said the scheme was helping more young women take long-term responsibility for their sexual behaviour.
She said: 'The fact that 70 per cent of these young women are accessing the morning-after pill within 24 hours of having unprotected sex shows we are enabling people to get the treatment within the window where it is most effective.
'The last thing we would want is to see young people with unplanned, unwanted pregnancies because they felt too ashamed to access the service.'
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Portsmouth
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 15 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 24 mph
Wind direction: East
