Morning After Pill in Staffordshire

Briefing.

From SPUC: Nearly 200 schoolgirls in North Staffordshire, England, have been given the morning-after pill by school nurses since a scheme was set up by the local health authority in 2003. The annual rate has risen from 19 in the first year to 84 in 2006. Our source quoted a SPUC spokesman as saying: "The answer to various modern problems isn't to make birth control and abortion more widely available but to have a culture which values human life." [The Sentinel, 9 May] Pupils at Lutterworth Grammar School, Leicestershire, which has been criticised for giving out 345 morning-after pills in the last four years, have expressed support on a website for their headmaster. They point out that the Strictly Confidential service was set up four years ago, and Mr Eddie De Middelaer has only been at the school a year. They think he was right to keep the service. [Leicester Mercury, 9 May]