ISLAND girls as young as 13 will soon be given the contraceptive pill at pharmacies without first seeing a doctor, as part of a controversial new scheme being piloted on the Isle of Wight — and described by one critic as morally depraved.
Ten Island pharmacies will take part in the trial, in which girls asking for emergency contraception — the morning-after pill — will also be able to obtain a month’s supply of the progesterone-only contraceptive pill without the need for a prescription.
When the scheme is launched in November, Island pharmacists will become the first in the country to give the pill to teenagers below 16 the age of consent.
The Island’s health trust hopes it will improve engagement with young, possibly vulnerable girls in need of sexual health advice and support, as well as cut the number of underage and unwanted pregnancies, but critics this week slammed the scheme.
Island MP Andrew Turner said it was an appalling idea and he would take the matter up with Health Secretary Andrew Lansley.
"We expect parents to take responsibility for their children — they are undermined if the NHS hands out contraceptives to girls with no medical examination or consideration of their circumstances. Underage sex is illegal and dangerous," he said.
Ryde parish priest Fr Anthony Glaysher claimed it was morally depraved and would encourage girls to be promiscuous, while Totland pro-life campaigner Chris Whitehouse, who has three daughters aged 12, 16 and 17, said parents should know if their daughter was on the pill.
"It’s important girls have access to contraception advice but it’s appalling such a powerful drug can be doled out like this," he said.
But Kevin Noble, community pharmacy lead at NHS Isle of Wight, denied the pill would be routinely handed out to young girls, and said anyone given it would also have a follow-up appointment with an outreach nurse to discuss sexual health.
He said pharmacies provided a lot of emergency contraceptives — 1,982 last year — and more could be done instead of simply sending girls away with the morning-after pill.
"This is about trained pharmacists providing appropriate support and information to any woman who has had unprotected sex," he said.
"In the past five years, 29 underage girls have accessed abortion services at St Mary's Hospital. It's a low figure but I think this will reduce it even further."
Kay Marriott, the trust's clinical service manager for sexual health and reproductive healthcare, added: "Of course it's going to be controversial — it's about sex. But we are talking about people who are already sexually active, and this is about ensuring people are safe, not encouraging them to have sex."
And the scheme has been welcomed by some parents.
One father of two daughters, aged 11 and 16, said: "In an ideal world teenage girls would always seek the help and advice of their parents and would not have sex, but we live in a less than ideal world.
"It must be better for a teenage girl who has taken the step of seeking the morning-after pill to receive contraceptive help and advice from a trained pharmacist. The alternative is to again run the risk of pregnancy."
Reporter: emilyp@iwcpmail.co.uk