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UK STUDY FINDS SEX ED AND MORNING AFTER PILLS ENCOURAGE PROMISCUITY

More abortions follow increased use of morning after pill

LONDON, March 18, 2002 (LSN.ca) - Dr David Paton, a leading expert on teenage fertility at the University of Nottingham, has released a study suggesting that candid sex education and the availability of the morning after pill have increased promiscuous sex. The study confirms the findings of studies conducted in 1999 and 2000 which found that use of family planning information did not lead to a decrease in unwanted pregnancies, and that found that young people who were prescribed the morning-after pill were much more likely to have abortions.

The current study examined figures from the Office of National Statistics for 2000 showing that 4,382 girls under the age of 16 had abortions, up 200 on the year before and up 20% since 1992, during the last Conservative Government. The current Government's policy of looking to decrease teen pregnancy with sex ed and availability of the morning after pill "is a failed policy, looking at all the available evidence," Paton said.

"It is clear that providing more family planning clinics, far from having the effect of reducing conception rates, has actually led to an increase," he said. "The availability of the morning-after pill seems to be encouraging risky behaviour. It appears that if people have access to family planning advice they think they automatically have a lower risk of pregnancy."

Dr. Paton explained the failed reasoning of the Government's current policy. "Basically, you are sending out mixed messages. On the one hand, sex under the age of 16 is illegal; on the other, you are giving information which says, 'Well, if you are going to do it, here's how you go about it'."

See the coverage from the London Guardian:
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,668962,00.html

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