By Hilary White
LONDON, November 3, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Under a new proposal by the UK’s government-funded medical ethics group, to stem the rising tide of sexually transmitted diseases and out-of-wedlock pregnancy, British children who go to their doctor for a cold or a scraped knee, could be questioned on the status of their sex-lives.
The Telegraph reports that the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), the government medical think tank that sets policies on medical issues and ethics for the Blair government, has urged that new guidelines be adopted under which children as young as 13 will be questioned about their sexual activity, no matter what reason they went to see the doctor.
Given British rules about confidentiality in providing contraception for children, this “counselling” will likely be carried out without parental consent or even notification. Britain’s teenage pregnancy rate is the highest in Europe with 39,286 recorded in 2002. Prime Minister Blair admitted earlier this year that little progress had been made with the £163 million spent since 1998 trying to curb teenage pregnancy.
The Telegraph reports that GP’s in Britain responded to the NICE’s proposal saying it will not work and that the government should be focusing on giving children more access to artificial contraceptives including abortifacients and hormonal implants.
Britain also leads the world in rates of abortion with government providing most abortion free of charge through the National Health Service.
The latest NICE proposal, however, contradicts the government’s earlier plan to try to convince children to at least delay their initial sexual activity. The Teenage Pregnancy Unit, an office of the ministry of health and the Department for Education and Skills, announced as recently as October 17 the Leave It Till Later campaign that encourages children and teenagers to wait.
Recent research from Nottingham University has shown that where young teens and children are given easy access to contraceptives, pregnancy rates have remained high or have risen.
Read coverage from the Telegraph:
£150m Plan has Failed to Cut Teenage Pregnancies
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=Y1B5ULQZ5U3WHQFIQMGSFF4AVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2006/02/24/npreg24.xml
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
UK Abortion Rates Continue to Climb Despite Increasing Emergency Contraception Use
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/sep/06091507.html