The drive by administration to give free morning-after pill to teenage girls has proved unsuccessful to diminish underage pregnancies. The scheme to offer over the counter emergency contraceptives to girls under aged sixteen have simply encouraged teenagers to have unprotected sex, found derogatory research.
This process has stimulated the rise in sexually transmitted diseases among youngsters. The Britain has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Western Europe. The proposal to give free emergency contraception to teenagers which including girls under sixteen, in pharmacies was a key piece of the last government’s Teenage Pregnancy Strategy.
The rates of pregnancy and levels of sexually transmitted infections in more than one hundred and forty local authorities across England were compared by Prof David Paton and Prof Sourafel Girma between 1998 and 2004. Among those some authorities did not proffer over the counter contraceptives to youngsters, whereas other initiated schemes during the study period.
It was found that pregnancy rates among under youngster were same whether they had or not access to contraceptives from pharmacies. But the rates of sexually transmitted disease were considerably high those taking the contraceptives. The results were equally true for girls aged sixteen to eighteen.
Offering the contraceptives free of charges did not have proposed effect in cutting teenage pregnancies, however, did have the ill-fated side effect of increasing sexually transmitted infections. Almost surely youngsters are having more unprotected sex, stated Prof Paton. The findings have serious insinuations for health leaders.
It found that sexually transmitted infections increased by twelve percent among the teenagers where the morning-after pill was available free from chemists. They need a gallant new approach to manage these infections as many of the lifestyle driven health problems are already at alarming levels, explained spokesman from a Department of Health.