BIRTH CONTROL FOR TEENS – PREGNANCIES GO UP BY 10%
POSTED: DEC 05, 2003

Daily Mail
12/05/03

A controversial sex education program that hands out condoms in school was branded a failure last night after figures showed a rise in teenage pregnancy rates.

The £3million Healthy Respect scheme, which was launched three years ago, is one of the most radical in Scotland.

Under the initiative, schools hand out condoms and pupils are sent to clinics for the morning-after pill.

The program, which could eventually be expanded across the country, has been piloted in the Lothians area.

But, while teenage pregnancy rates have fallen across Scotland, they have risen sharply in the Lothians.

Over the past year, the number of teenage pregnancies among 13 to 15-year-olds has surged by 10 percent to a total of 112.

Last night, critics called for Healthy Respect to be scrapped amid growing concerns that it has dramatically backfired.

David Davidson, health spokesman for the Scottish Tories, said: 'The Executive and the health board in Lothian have shown themselves to be morally bankrupt.

'It is a disgrace that it was ever thought these initiatives would have the desired effect.

'This policy should be reviewed immediately because these figures show it has been a dismal failure.' Healthy Respect ran into controversy immediately after it was set up by then Health Minister, Susan Deacon, to find new ways of tackling Scotland's teenage pregnancy problem.

One of its first projects was to send birthday cards with sexual health advice to parents on their child's 14th birthday.

Pro-life groups protested, branding Mrs. Deacon a 'nutcase'.

Under a scheme set up in Lothian in June, free morning-after pills are dished out through 24 pharmacies, including Boots, under the title EC72.

The Healthy Respect web site directly invites underage girls to take up the offer, stating: 'EC72 is free and completely confidential. We will not tell anyone that you have used the service.' A Lothian NHS Board spokesman last night defended the program, saying: 'To suggest, at this stage, that Healthy Respect is failing because it has not achieved specific, long- term health outcomes, undermines the important work of the project.

'It also obscures the fact that the majority of young people in Lothian are making mature, well-informed decisions about their sexual health as a direct result of the education, information and services provided by Healthy Respect and health promotion specialists within NHS Lothian.' Dundee remains Scotland's teen pregnancy capital, with 59.1 pregnancies for every 1,000 females in the 13 to 19 age range.

That is nearly three times the teenage pregnancy rate of 21.1 in 1,000 in East Renfrewshire, the area with the lowest rate.