Emergency contraception has 'little impact' on abortion rates
Pregnancy rates remain unmoved despite greater emergency contraception availability
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Friday, 15, Sep 2006 01:45
Making emergency contraception readily available to women has very little impact on pregnancy and abortion rates, a professor has warned.
Writing in today's issue of the British Medical Journal (BMJ), Professor Anna Glasier, director of family planning for the Lothian primary care trust, argues that the notion of morning-after contraception reducing abortion rates is simply not reflected in the figures.
Although the percentage of women requesting an abortion who said they had tried an intervention rose from one per cent in 1984 to 17.8 per cent in 2004, abortion rates nevertheless climbed from 11 per 1,000 women aged between 15 and 44 in 1984 to 17.8 per 1,000 women in the same period.
Professor Glasier believes that this undermines the importance of emergency contraception, because women are unaware that they need to use it the morning afterwards.
She cites several global studies which have shown that women with emergency contraception use it two to three times more often – but that the extra use makes no difference to pregnancy or abortion rates.
"If you are looking for an intervention that will reduce abortion rates, emergency contraception may not be the solution and perhaps you should concentrate most on encouraging people to use contraception before or during sex, not after it," Professor Glasier writes in the article.
Speaking in support of Professor Glasier, a spokeswoman for the charity Life said: "We now have evidence that the government's policy of making the morning-after pill more readily available, particularly to children, will not solve this country's appalling abortion rate."
She added that the morning-after pill "gives women a false sense of security and encourages risk taking in sexual activity".
Anthony Ozimic, political secretary for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) added: "State-sponsored promotion of birth control is counter-productive in reducing abortions among teenagers.
"The government's strategy of promoting the morning-after pill is proving to be a disaster, especially for young people and above all for the embryonic unborn children who may be aborted by the pill."
Responding to the claims, the Department of Health said: "Our policy has always been that safe sex, using reliable contraception on a regular basis, is the best way for women to protect against unwanted pregnancy."
The spokesman for the department added that the government had invested £40 million in improving access to contraceptive services nationwide and that it had reduced the VAT rate on condoms and other contraceptives to make them "cheaper than ever".