Morning After Pill Free for Teenage Girls in Wales and Brighton

Sad, sad news. A little more than just two months ago the Daily Mail published an article on how making the morning-after pill free for teenage girls had, surprise surprise, 'failed to cut teenage pregnancies'.

While we get the general gist of what the headline means, are people who write newspapers really stupid or something? I mean, a pill designed to destroy and flush out a human embryo cannot 'cut' pregnancies, since every time it is taken, the girl is already pregnant, right? That's, er, kind of what happens when you are pregnant - you have a tiny human embryo growing in your womb, or, as we currently know this tiny human being - a zygote - the near earliest stage of development in human life.

The pharmaceutical industry and the media just love playing around with words like this. It is only 'emergency contraception' because, er, you're pregnant. It's kind of too late to contracept when you are pregnant. It is called abortion.

Anyway, the Mail article told us this...

'The drive to give free morning-after pills to teenage girls has failed to cut underage pregnancies. Schemes to offer over-the-counter emergency birth control to girls under 16 have simply encouraged youngsters to have more unprotected sex, damning research found. In doing so they have fuelled a rise in sexually transmitted diseases. 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 teenage pregnancies needs a ‘moral solution’ and not one based on dishing out drugs.'

Gosh. Back to the drawing board then? Sadly not. The Telegraph today informs us that Wales has given the green light to distributing out the abortion pill to teens like sweets...

'Emergency contraception will be given out over the counter as part of an initiative to reduce unplanned pregnancies and abortions. More than 700 community pharmacies will be able to dispense the pill to girls younger than 16 if they believe it is “clinically appropriate”, with parts of Wales having some of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in Europe.'

Aside from the Church's obvious moral outrage that is the taking of nascent human life in the womb and the fact that this encourages teeny sex and nasty viruses, commenters on the Telegraph article have rightly suggested that this is also a 'green light for child abuse'. I hadn't thought of that - I'm not that bright, really - but those commenters are 100% correct. In other words, if dad is raping daughter, he can just get her to take the abortion pill. Who was that Austrian guy who was doing his daughter and getting her pregnant? If social services didn't pick up on that one, how would social services pick up on cases where the daughter is just routinely, chemically aborting her children and then striving to carry on with life as usual?

Well, what does it matter, eh? As long as those major pharmaceutical companies are making money at the tax payer's expense (yes, local and regional Governments have a lot of money set aside for these projects) out of killing nascent human life and covering up child abuse then I guess that is okay. No surprises either that Brighton is one of those areas in which the failure of the 'clinical trial' to offer the morning after pill to yield the anticipated cut in teen pregnancy (though, after research into it, one has to wonder whether that is even part of the true agenda) has been in operation and continues to be.

Brighton and Hove News reported back in February that from St Valentine's Day onwards (a sick joke, right?) the morning after pill would be made free in Brighton at a number of chemists all across town. No surprises that Whitehawk and Moulescoomb, Brighton's poorest areas, are well catered-for in this regard, but it also seems to be quite general all over Brighton. According to the local news website...

'The new service will make condoms, morning-after pills and chlamydia testing and treatment available free of charge to people aged under 25. The idea has come from Brighton and Hove City Teaching Primary Care Trust (PCT) – also known as NHS Brighton and Hove.

Amanda Marshall, community pharmacy development manager at the PCT, said: “Twenty three local pharmacies will offer this service which is part of our drive to improve young people’s sexual health and reduce unwanted pregnancies. When using this accessible service, young people will have a confidential chat with the pharmacist. This will ensure they are fully aware of the risks of sexually transmitted infections and the benefits of safe sex and efficient contraception.”

Birmingham, Bournemouth, Brighton, Cardiff, Coventry, Leeds, London, Luton, Peterborough and Swindon are all towns and cities where the 'clinical trials' have taken place. According to studies documented in the Mail, wherever these trials have taken place, results have been, if you excuse the pun, 'negative'. So, obviously, there was no good reason then for Wales to follow suit and make the abortion pill an ever present free optional feature of the lives of Welsh teenagers. But what do you know?! They did it anyway!

If you just listen to 'a spokesperson for the Department of Health', you can see more evidence of this absurdly blinkered attitude towards teenage pregnancy. I'd say it was delusional but for the fact that one assumes there is so much money changing hands over this issue that officialdom just spins the same yarn every time it is questioned.

“If people under the age of sixteen feel they are ready for sex, they should have the information and advice they need to make responsible choices.”

And the World thinks we are bonkers! I really do wonder sometimes. Er...isn't the only 'responsible' choice for people under the age of sixteen who 'feel' they are 'ready for sex', even though its, er, illegal, er...the choice not to have sex until they find someone who loves them when they are mature enough to commit and, gosh, who knows, maybe marry? The Department of Health is saying that the choices to have under-age sex, take the abortion pill or procure an abortion are just as 'responsible choices' as the choice not have underage sex.

All I can say is - thank God that our Bishops will defend Catholic schools and defend, like their own souls, their lambs, by ensuring they are given a Catholic education that will at least enable them to prepare for the onslaught of temptation that is put in their way. Wasn't that 'Fit for Mission? Schools' document written by Bishop O' Donoghue, that so delighted Pope Benedict XVI, just fantastic?

Whatever happened to that document, then?