Thursday 7 May, 2009

UK
Health
Family

… and continues to encourage breaking the law by promoting organisations offering contraception and abortion to under-16s

By Dee Pfeiffer

From July this year, six schools in Oxfordshire will be forced to offer the government’s controversial text-a-pill service. This will allow girls as young as eleven to order the abortion inducing morning-after pill by text message from their school nurse.

It is thought that there will be an outcry from parents, if and when they find out what is happening. Meanwhile an auxiliary bishop of the Catholic archdiocese of Birmingham said the proposed plan by local health authorities and the Oxfordshire County Council “goes against the very central idea the Catholic Church has on human life”. And to his dismay, one of the six schools being forced to take part is St Gregory the Great Catholic School in Oxford.

Bishop Leonard William Kenney said: “It is sending out the message that it is better to deal with the aftermath of what people do, rather than the causes. I don’t think this will help solve the teenage pregnancy rate and it is taking away responsibility from parents.”

But despite protests, authorities have informed the schools that no opt-out will be allowed, claiming that the texting service is “outside the governance of the schools” on the basis that it is offered outside of school hours.
St Gregory’s chaplain Father Daniel Seward said: “The school is part of the Catholic Church which has a very clear view that sexual relations take place properly within marriage and that any abortion or contraception is contrary to the dignity of the human person. Sex is never just a recreational activity.”

The six schools were picked out for the scheme on the basis of a poll conducted by Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust which identified Oxford and nearby Banbury as ‘hotspots’ for Britain’s endemic teen pregnancy problem.

In a joint statement issued in March, Oxfordshire County Council and the Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust said: “This service would provide an extra level of support for those young people who think they have taken a risk, or have another health problem, and don’t want to approach a doctor or a pharmacist but can text a nurse and ask what they can do.”

Authorities emphasised that they would bring in child protection staff if a request came from any girl aged 11 to 13, although how this would be ascertained if any anonymous request for advice is sought is not entirely clear. The age of consent for sexual activity in England and Wales is currently 16, as specified by the Sexual Offences Act 2003, but many are engaging in sex earlier due to early sexualisation, ironically implemented and supported by our own Government through sex education classes.

Indeed, Connexions, the government’s main young people’s advisory service, promotes organisations offering contraception and abortion to under-16s. Connexions staff are guided to work within a ‘confidentiality framework’ so that no information has to be given to parents and staff are advised that they “need to be independent of teachers”.

John Smeaton, director of the UK’s Society for the Protection of Unborn Children said the latest pilot plan shows how much contempt the sex education industry has for the unborn and for parents. “Parents have got to resist this kind of development,” he said.

Smeaton urged concerned parents to contact the Safe at School Campaign, a SPUC programme aiming to educate parents and teachers about the dangers of ‘sex and relationships education’. SPUC is currently running a petition to “stop the government turning schools into abortion referral centres” which can be found at www.spuc.org.uk/lobbying/referral

This is yet another attempt to take morality out of the hands of parents and place it firmly in the hands of the authorities. If this is not resisted at the pilot stage, both by schools and parents, it is sure to spread throughout the country.

The days are long gone when the Government consulted with and cared about parents and their views. On the one hand they say parents must be more responsible for the behaviour of their children while on the other hand they are passing regulation after regulation that constantly undermines the authority of parents.

Britain leads Western Europe for abortion, teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. It’s an abysmal situation that will inevitably lead to ruin for future generations. The Government’s cure is to simply dish out more of the medicine that has failed – more sex education at a younger and younger age, more availability of condoms and more access to abortion.

When the Department of Health orders school nurses to “support young women to access those services which will make timely choices about emergency contraception, pregnancy or abortion” and at the same time tells such youngsters to keep this secret from their parents, we are on a slippery slope indeed.

It’s a terrible abuse of children and their right to live a childhood without being sexually exploited. It is the responsibility of us all to challenge these ongoing attempts to sexualise and corrupt our young people. Nothing worth fighting for ever came easy, but with enough parents and concerned individuals standing up against schemes like this, it is surely possible to reverse the tide.

Photo: stock.xchng