3 Whitacre Mews, Stannary Street
London, SE11 4AB, United Kingdom
Telephone: (020) 7091 7091
Fax: (020) 7820 3131
Email: information@spuc.org.uk
Government's promotion of virginity a "wolf in sheep's clothing"
Westminster, 10 October 2000--The government's teenage pregnancy programme has been dubbed "a wolf in sheep's clothing" by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) in response to health minister Yvette Cooper's 'virginity is OK' campaign.John Smeaton, national director of SPUC, warned that people should
not be taken in by the government's lip-service to teenage virginity.
He said: "Of course, the promotion of abstinence among younger
teenagers is in itself a good thing, because evidence indicates that it
is an effective way of preventing teenage pregnancies and reducing the
number of abortions. However, the news that the government is to spend
£2 million on its 'virginity is OK' advertisements conceals the nature
of its £60 million programme in which abortion and other anti-life
measures are central. The promotion of virginity only constitutes a
front for a more sinister initiative.
"This programme, set out in the Government Social Exclusion Unit report entitled Teenage Pregnancy
(1999), includes the increased promotion to adolescents of the
morning-after pill (which can cause early abortions) and the easier
availability of abortion after a pregnancy is discovered. It also
establishes local co-ordinators in all areas who can point pregnant
under-18s towards the available options, including abortion."
Tony Blair has given the government's teenage policy his strong
personal support, saying in a foreword to the report: "This is a
comprehensive programme of action which we will put into practice
straight away..."
Mr Smeaton concluded: "The overriding objective of the government's policy is to prevent babies from being born at all costs and, as such, the promotion of teenage virginity should be seen as a wolf in sheep's clothing."
