Morning-after pill will add to teenage problems

Allowing the morning-after pill to be sold without prescription is going to cause more difficulties for young people, Jim Richards, director of the Catholic Children's Society, Westminster, said this week. "Young teenage girls are coming to our counsellors in growing numbers deeply worried about the pressures on them to have sexual intercourse," said Mr Richards. He went on to point out that in our increasingly sexualised society, together with its lack of commitment in relationships, teenage boys and men far too often see it as a right to have sex with their girlfriends. Making the morning after pill available over the counter will only exacerbate the problem. "Many men already put the onus for contraception on women, because of the contraceptive pill. They will now be able to do this more easily, even if the woman is not taking it, by directly, or indirectly suggesting they take the morning after pill. He said: "The government is, by this measure, only treating the symptoms, and ineffectively at that. The UK already has both the highest proportion of young people with sexually transmitted diseases and the youngest average age for the first experience of intercourse. The two are obviously connected. This pill will do nothing to tackle these problems, whose roots lie in poverty and fractured family life. This seemingly high-tech fix may look good for the government's desire for positive headlines, but very little else."