Health body 'too positive' about effects of morning after pill

Professor Anna Glasier, who was appointed last month as NHS Lothian's clinical director for sexual health, says that the FPA, formerly known as the family planning association, have overstated the effectiveness of the morning-after pill by emphasising that it is effective in 95 per cent of cases.

She also hit out at the wide availability of the drug, and the willingness of doctors to prescribe it, which she says has encouraged young girls in particular to view it as an alternative method of contraception.

Prof Glasier, who is considered to be one of the world's foremost experts on contraception, was unhappy about the emphasis on the pill in a new FPA leaflet.

She said: "Their leaflet about emergency contraception is incredibly positive and says that it will prevent 95 per cent of pregnancies, and you can use it as often as you like. That's the wrong message.

"Emergency contraception will prevent some pregnancies if you have unprotected intercourse, or if you've had a failure of your method of contraception. But it should act as a warning that you need to get your act together to either use a better method of contraception, or employ the method you are currently using more consistently and more correctly."

"I don't think it is 95 per cent effective. So while I am sure that emergency contraception prevents some pregnancies some of the time for some women, it's not the magic bullet people thought it was five years ago."

She claimed that women who relied on emergency contraception would find themselves pregnant within one year.

There were 12,448 abortions in Scotland last year, which means there is one abortion for every four live births; 309 of the abortions involved girls under the age of 16.

Vishnee Sauntoo, a spokeswoman for the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, believes that making the morning-after pill more readily available will reduce teenage pregnancies and abortions, and recommends that women keep a supply of them in their house and use them in emergencies.

Ms Sauntoo said: "Emergency contraception should not be used as regular contraception, but we need to remember that we are not all perfect and we don't all take the pill or wear a condom all the time.

"Women should take it with them if they're going on a holiday because they might not be able to get hold of it when they're there."

The Christian Institute, a religious think-tank, is vehemently opposed to the morning-after pill and agreed with Prof Glasier's view, claiming that highlighting the pill's 95 per cent success rate is evading other important issues.

A spokesman, Mike Judge, said: "It is an emergency contraception and, while it may be able to deal with a pregnancy, it does not deal with sexually transmitted diseases.

"The wider availability of the morning-after pill will encourage unprotected sexual activity. Many younger girls see it as an alternative contraception and they repeatedly use it, which is extremely dangerous."

The FPA yesterday denied that it was looking to promote the use of emergency contraception, pointing out that the document Prof Glasier refers to had not yet been published, and had only been distributed to medical professionals for their feedback.

Toni Belfield, director of information at the FPA, said: "According to the World Health Organisation and other bodies, if emergency contraception is taken within 24 hours of unprotected sex it will prevent 95 per cent of pregnancies expected to occur if no emergency contraception had been used.

"Nowhere in this draft leaflet, which is still at the consultation stage, does it say that you can use emergency contraception as often as you like.

"Our guidance is quite clear: that emergency contraception should not be used as a regular method of contraception."