London, Jan 31 (IANS) Schemes to offer over-the-counter emergency contraceptive pills to under-16 girls in Britain have simply encouraged them to have more unprotected sex, instead of curtailing teenage pregnancies, a study says.
The findings are a blow to public health chiefs who have argued that handing out the morning-after pill cuts schoolgirl pregnancies.
Family campaigners seized on the research as more evidence that the problem of teen pregnancies needs a ‘moral solution’ and not one based on dishing out drugs.
Britain has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in western Europe. In 2008, the last year for which figures are available, more than 7,500 girls in England and Wales became pregnant, reports the Daily Mail.
The scheme to give free emergency contraception to teens, including girls under 16, in pharmacies, was a key part of the last government’s Teenage Pregnancy Strategy.
Professors David Paton and Sourafel Girma, both economists from Nottingham University, compared pregnancy rates and levels of sexually transmitted infections in more than 140 local authorities across England between 1998 and 2004.
Prof. Paton said: ‘Offering the morning-after pill free of charge didn’t have the intended effect of cutting teenage pregnancies, but did have the unfortunate side-effect of increasing sexually transmitted infections.’
