The Christian Institute

Tuesday, 25 June, 2002

The Pill for schools

By STEPHANIE TODD

LOTHIAN NHS Board would consider allowing the morning-after pill to be prescribed in schools if the move was given the go-ahead by the Scottish Executive.

The board said it was keeping its options open over the controversial new proposals.

The Executive is pushing ahead with plans to free up doctors’ time by allowing nurses to prescribe some medication - a move which could allow school nurses to dispense the pill to under-16s without parental consent.

The radical initiative is seen as a way of reducing the growing teenage pregnancy rate in Scotland.

Under the plan, school nurses would assess girls and decide whether they are mature enough to take the medication without any contact or input from parents.

The morning-after pill is 95 per cent effective against pregnancy if taken within 48 hours of unprotected intercourse.

A spokeswoman for Lothian NHS Board said today it had "no immediate plans" to introduce the pill at present, but added that it may be given consideration in future. She said: "The Scottish Executive is changing the rules which prevented nurses from prescribing medications in the past and it is an option that we may consider.

"It’s not just about school nurses prescribing contraceptives, but a whole other range of general medications too.

"If nurses were to be given this power, a whole range of measures would need to come first - including training - before anything could happen. Nothing is underway at present."

Church officials hit out at the plan and called for the Scottish Executive to rethink the controversial proposal.

Peter Kearney, spokesperson for the Catholic Church in Scotland, said: "We are creating a generation of young people effectively addicted to chemicals.

"What we are saying to them is, ‘Don’t worry about your behaviour - even if you do have unprotected sex, just come into school the next day and pop a pill’. Parents will be mortified."

Plans to increase prescribing powers for nurses are under consultation both north and south of the Border, with ministers due to report back on their findings next month.

But several Scottish health boards are believed to want ministers to relax existing rules which prohibit offering the morning-after pill in schools, and are lobbying ministers to adopt the new policy.

There are no set limits on a lower age limit for the prescription of the pill under the plans.

A Scottish Executive spokesman said: "We know there is an implication in the proposals that school nurses could be empowered to prescribe morning-after pills.

"We have told all health boards that there must be full consultation on any such plans at a local level."

The plans are backed by the Royal College of Nursing, which represents school nurses in Scotland. A spokesman said: "There is no reason why school nurses, given training, should not be capable of providing emergency contraception."

The morning after pill became available in Scotland without prescription from high street chemists in January 2001. And use of the emergency contraception increased by 20 per cent in the following 12 months.

© Edinburgh Evening News

Wednesday, 26 June, 2002

Glasgow rules out sex pill for girls.

By Martin Murray.

HEALTH bosses in Glasgow say they have no plans to offer schoolgirls the morning-after pill
without parental consent.

The denial follows reports that health authorities in Scotland and England are drawing up proposals to offer the powerful emergency contraception medication to under-16s in an attempt to cut the number of teenage pregnancies.

A report said the Government was considering plans to allow school nurses to give the pill to girls as young as 11.

However, a spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow said: "We do not prescribe the morning-after pill in schools and have no plans to do so.

"Any change of policy would require us to consult with all
relevant agencies, such as local councils."

A newspaper report said the Scottish Executive was keen to allow nurses to prescribe some drugs previously only available from doctors, including the morning-after pill.

But an Executive spokeswoman said: "It is not something we are driving forward.

"Any change at local level has to be done with the full consultation of parents and teachers. Giving nurses prescribing powers is to allow them to give out
everyday remedies and things such as nicotine replacement treatments."

The Catholic Church said parents would be outraged by any plans to give the morning-after pill to schoolgirls.

A spokesman said it would encourage young girls to have unprotected sex without worrying about the consequences.

Family Youth and Concern said it would give pupils a licence to engage in sexual activity and was potentially "very dangerous".

However, the Royal College of Nursing said it could see no reason why properly-trained nurses should not be able to prescribe emergency contraception.

Schools in England already allow school nurses to prescribe the morning-after-pill. At one school girls of 11 can get the drug.

Emergency contraception is taken by thousands of women in the UK every year, but critics claim not enough is known about its powerful effects.

It was developed in 1985 and a new more powerful version was introduced two years ago.

The pill contains levonorgestrel, which dramatically alters hormone levels, preventing a fertilised embryo implanting in the wall of the womb.

It is estimated to be 95% effective if taken within 48 hours of unprotected sexual intercourse.

© Evening Times

Thursday, 27 June, 2002

A morning-after pill for your child - and you won’t even be told

IF YOU are a parent, do you consider yourself to be the main guardian of your child’s physical and mental health? If so, whether you approve of the morning-after-pill or not, you should be very wary of the new proposals by health authorities to offer the pill, which some people claim is more an abortifacient than a contraceptive, to children under 16 without either your knowledge or consent.

A nurse, not you, will soon be able to take it upon herself to give your daughter a powerful drug. She, not you, will decide whether your daughter’s body is mature enough to cope with it. She, not you, will decide whether your daughter fully understands the implications. She, not you, will watch her take a pill that contains six times the hormone levels of the ordinary contraceptive.

It will be their secret. You only come in when the trouble starts - as it may, since almost nothing is known about the long-term effects of the morning-after pill and no research whatever has been done to monitor its effect on teenagers. If your daughter develops medical or psychological problems, these will be left for you to deal with.

So let’s be clear about these proposals. A nurse, who at the moment cannot even give your child a paracetamol without your consent, is to be allowed to give your child the morning-after-pill without even telling you afterwards.

One obvious question. If your child dies as a result, who will be responsible?

Quite apart from indemnity, there are many aspects of this proposed policy that are troubling.

First, the marginalisation of parents over such a crucial issue is quite wrong. Many parents may be pretty useless, but that does not give health boards the right to exclude them from discussions and decisions about their child. Health boards may have a place in offering help and advice, but allowing them simply to pretend that parents do not exist does nothing but undermine a relationship that health boards should surely be trying to promote.

Moreover, handing out morning-after pills does nothing to combat the other huge and growing problems with regard to teenage sexual activity, for example the massive rise in sexually transmitted diseases such as symptomless chlamydia, which causes infertility, to say nothing of gonorrhoea, genital warts and HIV.

Make parents feel that sex and its aftermath are no longer anything to do with them and you lose vital troops in the battle against teenage sexual activity.

Second, giving children the idea that you can just go into school and get a pill that will solve all your problems is a dangerous one. Already, my 16-year-old daughter tells me that when they discuss these things at school, her friends say they would rather take the morning-after pill than use a condom. Being able to access the pill freely and privately encourages them to believe that sex really has become a risk-free activity. And boys pile on the pressure. Hey, all you’ve got to do is take a pill, so why are you being so frigid? Your mum will never know! Come on! Don’t you think I am worth taking a pill for?

Even if the morning-after pill was to decrease the levels of teenage pregnancies that get beyond the earliest stages - and statistics show no signs of its doing so - is this the kind of pressure we really want to see teenagers put under?

Then there is the fact, one that nobody disputes, that there is no conclusive clinical evidence that the morning-after pill is safe. The pill dramatically alters hormone levels. Its effect on adolescent girls has never been properly assessed. In teenagers, repeated and unmonitored use of the morning-after pill could be catastrophic. And they will not be careful. They will believe, as most of us would believe, that something handed out by the school nurse cannot be bad for you. By the time they discover otherwise, it will be too late.

The problem of teenage pregnancy and use of the morning-after pill cannot be looked at without looking at the whole area of teenage sexual activity.

My fear is that by thinking to cure one, all you will really do is make the other much worse.


© The Scotsman