PTI

London, Nov 17: In an effort to combat soaring teenage pregnancy in UK, government has ordered local authorities to press girls as young as 13 to have contraceptive jabs, which can make girls infertile for up to three months, a policy that has sparked an outcry in the country.

The Labour government has identified failures by teenage girls to take the daily pill correctly as one reason for soaring under-age pregnancy rates, which was the highest in Europe. Now British health and education ministers have ordered council and health chief executives to increase the uptake of “long-acting” contraception in teen pregnancy “hot spots”.

The government wants school-based clinics to push for “an overall increase in the uptake of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC)”, which can make girls infertile for up to three months, the Daily Telegraph said.
According to figures from five of England’s 152 primary care trusts, girls as young as 13 have been administered injections and implants. Research at 16 schools in Bristol found two per cent of girls had been given the injections, the daily said.

An outrage was caused in 2005 when a nurse in Gateshead revealed that she gave a contractive injection to a schoolgirl in the lavatories of a McDonald’s restaurant.

The government move has sparked an outcry with critics warning that it will promote promiscuity and that injections and implants will not protect against the rampant spread of sexually transmitted disease. Some health experts also say that the drugs are unsuitable for girls who are still growing.

Hans Christian Raabe, a GP and medical coordinator of the Council for Health and Wholeness, opposed the move and instead called for “behavioural change” among the teenagers.

“There are concerns that using them over long periods might have an impact on bone growth,” Raabe said. “The other issue is it gives an impression of safety that is not there. Girls will think ‘Nothing can happen to me because I can’t get pregnant,’” he stressed.

Sue Pheasant, a parent who has campaigned on sex education issues, said: “It seems the answer to everything is a pill or an injection. Young people are very confused”.