World Contraception Day, What Next?

It is reported that a campaign to raise awareness of contraception and the risks of unprotected sex was launched in Dublin yesterday. The second World Contraception Day, which takes place today, according to the report, aims to promote education and awareness-raising about contraceptive use, particularly among 18-25 year olds. The campaign is supported by family planning organisations, including the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) and the Dublin Well Woman Centre, as well as the European Society of Contraception.

Aside from the obvious moral issues involved it is tragic that organisations like this persist in the promotion of contraception to teenagers despite the evident failure of similar policies in the UK and elsewhere, which have lead to increases in the level of abortion and sexually transmitted diseases there. In fact after all the years of the much lauded Teenage Pregnancy Strategy UK statistics issued earlier this year recorded the highest ever rate of child abortions. SPUC

David Paton in an important report in 2003 “The Economics of Family Planning and Underage Conception- Contradictory Evidence”, pointed out that the so called evidence used to make the case in support of making contraception available to teenagers was spurious to say the least. Paton is on record as saying: "I find no evidence that greater access to family planning has reduced underage conceptions or abortions. Indeed, there is some evidence that greater access is associated with an increase in underage conceptions..." See also John Smeaton's Blog