3 Whitacre Mews, Stannary Street
London, SE11 4AB, United Kingdom
Telephone: (020) 7091 7091
Fax: (020) 7820 3131
Email: information@spuc.org.uk
"Abortion into the classroom"
Westminster, 8 January 2001--News that the morning-after pill is being made available to girls at school without the knowledge or consent of parents has been greeted with concern but not surprise by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC).John Smeaton, national director of SPUC, said: "We have known about
this scheme for some time and it was entirely expected that it would
expand to more and more schools.
"The easy availability of morning-after pills is central to the
government's strategy on teenage pregnancy, a strategy which has
received Tony Blair's strong personal support. However, as the
responsible government minister Yvette Cooper admitted on 24 November
2000, there is no evidence that morning-after pills actually reduce
pregnancy rates. Indeed, the 1990s saw a five-fold increase in
prescriptions of morning-after pills, yet the overall rate of abortion
rose.
"To present the morning-after pill as 'emergency contraception' is
dishonest and unfair because it is intended to work by preventing a
newly conceived human embryo from implanting in his or her mother's
womb. The embryo is literally starved to death. These drugs cause early
abortions, and SPUC has written to all schools urging them to make this
vital information known to pupils.
"Easier access to the morning-after pill is very worrying also
because it puts the health of women and girls at risk and will only
lead to a greater incidence of sexually transmitted disease. Members of
SPUC are planning to distribute leaflets outside pharmacies to let the
public know the true nature of this potent drug.
"Distributing morning-after pills in schools brings abortion into the classroom and endangers the health of vulnerable girls. This is another example of the government, in denial of evidence, promoting a dogmatic social policy with no regard for human dignity."
