Girls as young as 11 to text school nurse for morning after pill (From Oxford Mail)

Contraceptive texts designed to halt Oxfordshire teen pregnancies

6:50am Tuesday 24th March 2009 in News By Chris Walker

SCHOOLCHILDREN in Oxfordshire will be able to ask for the morning-after pill by text message this summer as part of plans to cut teenage pregnancies.

From July, girls as young as 11 at four secondary schools in Oxford and two in Banbury will be able to text requests for the pill if they have had unprotected sex, or believe contraception has failed.

The service is being introduced jointly by Oxfordshire County Council and Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust after a jump of almost 10 per cent in the number of girls aged 18 and under getting pregnant.

The number went up from 320 in 2006 to 350 in 2007, according to the latest figures.

Last night, County Hall refused to reveal which schools were involved as it might attract “unhelpful attention”.

But a confidential inquiry held in July pinpointed Oxford and Banbury as teen pregnancy “hotspots” with figures from the PCT showing 53 per cent of the county’s teen conceptions occured there.

Teenage mother Laura Cross, 18, from Hengrove Close, Barton, said: “I think it’s a good idea. I know people who have fallen pregnant because they’re too embarrassed to have the morning-after pill.

“If someone is embarrassed they would rather text than approach someone directly. Teenagers don’t want to admit they are having sex because they are afraid their parents will find out.”

Father John Saward, a priest at SS Gregory and Augustine Roman Catholic Church in Woodstock Road, said: “I think it’s horrendous.

“Presenting this as a programme will encourage promiscuity in children.”

Over the past seven years, a total of 1,130 morning after-pills have been given to teenagers at the county’s 14 Bodyzone clinics, confidential drop-in centres run by the PCT.

Oxfordshire PCT said child protection staff would become involved if any child aged between 11 and 13 asked for contraception.

Sarah Breton, lead officer for projects between the county council and Oxfordshire PCT, said: “This will provide an extra level of contact for those young people who think they have taken a risk and don’t want to approach a doctor or a pharmacist, but can text a health nurse and ask what they can do.

“Our commitment is to reduce the number of teenage conceptions in Oxfordshire so we’re looking at the most effective ways of doing that.”

County councillor and mother-of-four Louise Chapman, cabinet member for children, young people and families, first fell pregnant when she was a teenager.

She said: “There’s no intention on our part to undermine parents, and we would encourage young people to speak to their parents about their situation.

“The nurses are not just there to give out contraception willy-nilly.

“If you live in the real world this is happening and we’d be foolish to think there was something we could do to stop young people having sex.”

But Norman Wells, director of the Family Education Trust, commented: "Oxfordshire PCT is sadly mistaken if it thinks a text service to help teenage girls get the morning-after pill through the school nurse seven days a week and 52 weeks a year will reduce the teenage pregnancy rate.

“School staff should be encouraging young people to respect and confide in their parents, not undermining them.”