In Tayside, in Scotland, teenage pregnancies have fallen by 50%. 11.8 pregnancies were recorded per 1,000 young girls in 2007 compared to the current figure of 5.8 per 1,000. Prescriptions of the morning after pill are increasing at the same time.
Of all the prescriptions issued for under 16 year-olds, approximately 19 were given to 16 year-old girls, 20 to 15 year-olds and 12 to 14 year-olds. In 2011-2012 and 2014-2015, a 12 year-old child was given a prescription for the morning after pill.
Scottish MP Bill Bowman is calling for “genuine reflection on our society” when children aged 12 and 13 in Tayside need a prescription for a contraceptive or the morning after pill. “If individuals are sexually active at 12 years of age, or even earlier, at 10 or 11, as these figures seem to suggest, there is a great deal of work to do”.
Daily Mail, Alexandra Thompson (04/07/2017)