A Government’s regulatory public health body has advised teenagers and young women that they should stockpile the morning-after pill in case they fall in unwanted pregnancies.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) made this the controversial statement despite the fact there is no evidence that advance access to emergency contraception brings down pregnancy rates.
Its guidance has parked outrage.
Opponents believe that such advice risks fuelling promiscuity among young people and is concerned at increased spending on contraception whilst treatment for hundreds of cancer sufferers is being denied.
The advice is the first time that NICE has called for young people to have access to emergency contraception to keep at home. The regulator has also recommended that pharmacies should be targeted as places where the under-25s can get the morning-after pill in advance.
Norman Wells, of Family and Youth Concern, said:
‘The draft guidance is clearly more interested in getting young people to use contraception than it is in discouraging them from engaging in sexual activity in the first place.
‘Confidential contraceptive schemes are simply giving children under the age of consent the green light to experiment sexually. The result is more schoolgirl mums, and spiralling rates of sexually transmitted infections.
‘Contrary to the assumptions made by NICE, international research evidence shows that making the morning-after pill more readily available doesn't make the slightest difference to unintended pregnancy and abortion rates.
‘The only people who would benefit from these proposals are the contraceptive manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies.’
NICE’s draft guidance came at a time when Channel 4 broadcast the first ever abortion advert on British TV. The advert, promoted by Marie Stopes International, one of the world’s largest pro-abortion groups, sparked outrage among campaigners and the general public who criticised the advertisement as failing to explain what Marie Stopes .
(See the CCFON report)