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Schoolgirls can get morning after pill without uttering a word by flashing 'modesty' card
Last updated at 14:37pm on 18.12.07
Morning after pill: Schoolgirls only have to present their card to the pharmicist (posed by model)
The cards will allow youngsters to request the pill simply by placing the card on the pharmacist's counter.
Supporters of the scheme say it will cut unplanned pregnancies by helping teenagers avoid a potentially "daunting" conversation.
But the plan was greeted with dismay by family campaigners who say it will encourage irresponsible attitudes to sex.
Hundreds of request cards - which have a picture of a young couple kissing on the front - have been distributed in schools and youth clubs.
The initiative, devised by the Dorset Primary Care Trust, is believed to be the first of its kind in Britain. It is being tested in the seaside resort of Weymouth.
The town has an above average rate of teenage pregnancies, and youth workers believe one reason for this is that teenagers are too ashamed to ask for the morningafter pill.
Keith Williams, health programme adviser at the Dorset Primary Care Trust, said the cards will be given to teenage girls by school nurses.
He added: "This scheme has been devised as a way of reducing the teenage pregnancy rate."
"If you are a teenage girl it is quite a daunting thing to go into a pharmacy and say out loud: 'I had unprotected sex.' There may be somebody in [the pharmacy] that you know and in the past that sort of thing may have put girls off from asking for emergency contraception.
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The contraceptive 'credit card': Girls simply place it on the chemist's counter
"Now if you require the morning-after pill you can place the card on the counter and say with minimal fuss: 'Could I speak to somebody about this?.' It is adding a degree of confidentiality - people can do it almost without speaking."
The law states that pharmacies must not sell the morning-after pill to under-16s.
However, individual primary care trusts can adopt a policy which allows pharmacies to supply contraception to younger girls. This month, it was revealed that girls as young as 12 are being given the morning-after pill without their parents' knowledge in eight out of ten health authority areas.
Lisa Browne, teenage pregnancy strategy co- ordinator at Dorset County Council, said: "It can sometimes be a daunting prospect for young women to walk into a busy pharmacy and ask for emergency contraception."
"Whilst we would always advise people not to have unprotected sex, we would encourage women in the area to pick up a card."
Mr Williams said pharmacists will still have to question a girl discreetly before handing over emergency contraception.
But Mike Judge, spokesman for the Christian Institute charity, said: 'This is like handing out contraception credit cards. In the same way that traditional credit cards can foster a reckless attitude to spending money, this will foster a reckless attitude to inappropriate sexual activity.
"To be telling teenage girls that they can hand over a card and get the morning-after pill in return is highly irresponsible."
He added: "As a society we should be encouraging and urging children to say no to sex until they are older and in a loving relationship."
A spokesman for the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child said: "The morning-after pill delivers a high hormonal dose to women and girls which is 50 times that of the normal contraceptive pill."
"It is medically and ethically wrong to allow people to take this with minimal consultation."
The scheme was unveiled less than a week after it emerged that girls under 16 could soon be able to get the contraceptive Pill from their chemist without a prescription.
Reader views (8)
The sad fact is that we the adults of the generation above have created this society...not the children so I say give them everything they need to stay safe and healthy and make things like this accessible, other wise we will be punishing our kids for our lax morals...again.
- Daveb, London
Seems like a silly idea to me, and takes a lot of the "fun" out of teenage development that we enjoyed/endured as youngsters. I reckon pharmacy counters up and down the land would be made far more entertaining places if people too embarrassed to ask directly for what they want were encouraged to make themselves understood through the power of mime - for example, I'd love to see people asking for Derbac (crab lotion) in this way.
- Karli, Tottenham, London
I think this could be a good idea, however bizarre it sounds. I'm in my 30s now and I'd still be really embarrassed if I ever had to tell my mum I was pregnant! Stupid, I know, but some of us don't want to admit we've done 'it'.
- Suzanne, London
I think 'modesty' card is a tad ironic, don't you?
- Dan, Manchester
When I was at school our sex education was excellent and covered absolutely everything. This included extremely graphic photographs of STD's and the effects on the human body and I have to say that it did rather put me off the idea of sex and I would definately not have toyed with the idea of unprotected sex!
I would also like to mention that I find it extremely annoying to watch advert after advert for Thrush cream, Hemorrhoids.
cream and (my favourite) weak bladder syndrome but have yet to see a single advert for Condoms... No wonder the youth of today are running such risks...
- Sam, London
If they're not too shy to have unprotected sex, they shouldn't be too shy to go and ask for the morning-after pill (or early abortion pill)... or for that matter to arrange contraception beforehand.
- Paul, London
If they feel shame and stigma about having sex then they know that they are doing wrong. That is what we must build on, the wrongfulness of sex too young and outside stable commitment. Not encouraging them with "it's all right really, let us make it easy for you."
A lot of government money and effort has gone into making drink driving, or racism, or not recycling socially unacceptable. The same could be, and should be done here.
- Cam, UK
Better still have these cards registered with girls details and bar coded so that patterns can be monitered to give early warning signs of likely to be vulnerable to STD/HIV. With an online link to the girls GP this will allow medics to help these girls confidentially otherwise this scheme will reduce teenage pregnancies but undoubtedly increase STD/HIV infection rates.
- James, Long Island, New York.
