SPUC condemns plans to give birth control jabs to 14-year-olds

WESTMINSTER, 16 November 2004 - The Society for the Protection of
Unborn Children has condemned suggestions by Margaret Hodge, the
Children's Minister, that girls as young as 14 should be given
abortifacient birth control injections.

John Smeaton, SPUC's National Director said: "This is yet another
irresponsible and desperate attempt by the Government to deal with a
problem it has aided and abetted for years.

"Depo Provera is misleadingly promoted simply as contraception, but it
can have an abortifacient function by rendering the lining of the womb
hostile to the newly conceived embryo. Young people must not be made
the victims of government ideology on how to reduce teenage
pregnancies and misinformation on methods of birth control.

"Moreover, birth control injections offer no protection against
sexually transmitted infections and are associated with significant
health risks. The Government should also be aware that providing
underage girls with birth control - no questions asked - is to collude
with acts of sexual abuse.

"If Government ministers are serious about tackling the problems of
teenage pregnancy and the spread of STIs, they need to have the
courage to rethink completely their policies rather than to keep
funding the kind of programmes that created this crisis in the first
place."