SPUC petitions against abortion pills for 11-year-olds

Westminster, 9 July 2001--The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has launched a nationwide petition to stop girls as young as 11 from being given morning-after pills at school.

John Smeaton, SPUC national director, said: "Morning-after pills can cause abortions and they contain a massive hormonal dose. The government has admitted that there have been no conclusive tests of how they might affect girls' health.

"Parents need to be made aware of the practice of allowing school nurses to give pupils these pills. Their true nature and high dosage needs to be made public and we must get MPs to reverse the government's decision.

"Although our prime concern is that morning-after pills can cause abortion, parents also need to know that they are being made available to children who are way below the age of consent, and that such provision is confidential. Morning-after pills do not protect against sexually transmitted diseases and, in most cases of their provision in schools, neither parents nor the family doctor will ever be told."

SPUC plan to collect signatures for the petition outside churches and mosques, as well as in high streets. Supporters are also being asked to write to their MPs.

Morning-after pills can prevent or delay ovulation and, failing that, will affect the lining of the womb so that a recently-conceived embryo cannot implant. They are thus abortifacient. A dose of Levonelle 2 morning-after pills contains 50 times the daily dose of levonorgestrel to be found in the Norgeston contraceptive mini-pill.