The government has announced today yet another disastrous policy - bonuses for doctors to give contraceptive implants and jabs to teenage girls, in order to reduce the teenage pregnancy rate. This has a faint echo of the global financial crisis, in which the senior management of failed banks are still being paid bonuses despite their complicity in the crisis. The government's teenage pregnancy strategy and its accompanying provision of more contraception and so-called sexual health services is an abject, manifest failure. Below are my comments (JS) on extracts from the government's document issued today.
"We are also investing £6 million over the three years 2008-09 to 2010-11 to support PCTs and further education colleges to improve information and advice on contraception to young people in further education. Over time, we expect these colleges to extend the range of health advice available, to support students in developing healthy lifestyles. Further education colleges and PCTs will be expected to forge strong links, together with other providers of health and wellbeing services, including the voluntary sector." JS: This means that once further education colleges are flooded with birth control, the government will enforce access to abortion.
"Evidence demonstrates that England compares poorly with the best-performing countries in a number of key public health areas." JS: And who has been in overall charge of public health in England since 1997? Hasn't it been the Labour government, the authors of the document?
"It is important that young people have access to consistent, evidence-based advice to support them in making healthy choices, and that society supports them in those choices. " JS: The evidence shows that using birth control and having abortions are unhealthy choices. The Government’s strategy of promoting birth control, including abortion, as some sort of panacea for society’s ills is not solving any problems - as the secular media have themselves pointed out again and again.
"We are also investing £6 million over the three years 2008-09 to 2010-11 to support PCTs and further education colleges to improve information and advice on contraception to young people in further education. Over time, we expect these colleges to extend the range of health advice available, to support students in developing healthy lifestyles. Further education colleges and PCTs will be expected to forge strong links, together with other providers of health and wellbeing services, including the voluntary sector." JS: This means that once further education colleges are flooded with birth control, the government will enforce access to abortion.
"Evidence demonstrates that England compares poorly with the best-performing countries in a number of key public health areas." JS: And who has been in overall charge of public health in England since 1997? Hasn't it been the Labour government, the authors of the document?
"It is important that young people have access to consistent, evidence-based advice to support them in making healthy choices, and that society supports them in those choices. " JS: The evidence shows that using birth control and having abortions are unhealthy choices. The Government’s strategy of promoting birth control, including abortion, as some sort of panacea for society’s ills is not solving any problems - as the secular media have themselves pointed out again and again.
"Since the launch of our Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, we have reversed the previous upward trend in teenage pregnancy" JS: In fact, the latest figures show that the rate of teenage pregnancies has increased. And the record shows that the number of teenage pregnancies had already started falling before the strategy began; and the rate of decrease started to slow once the strategy began to be implemented on the ground.
"[W]hile we have seen reductions in some sexually transmitted infections (STIs), young people aged 16 to 24 still account for nearly half of STIs diagnosed despite making up only 12% of the population." JS: The rate of STIs has increased massively since the start of the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy. This is hardly surprising. Professor David Paton, who holds a chair in Economics at Nottingham University, has shown in a paper entitled "The economics of family planning and underage conceptions" (this paper is not available free online, but if you would like a copy please contact me) that family planning, and increased access to it, increases the likelihood that teenagers will engage in sexual activity.
"We have set out clear guidance to local areas on what works to reduce teenage pregnancy, drawn from the international evidence base and learning from areas with declining rates. Critical to accelerating progress is improving young people’s knowledge and use of effective contraception. Research in the USA found that 86% of the decline in the US teenage pregnancy rate was due to improved contraceptive use." JS: As if the government would know what works! The government only really listens to abortion and contraception providers, who have a vested interest in ensuring that the "evidence base" presented to governments suggests that governments give them more money and business opportunities. This research, on which the government relies, is no exception. A report in Science Daily about this research refers to "the study by Dr. Santelli of the Mailman School in conjunction with researchers at the Guttmacher Institute". The Guttmacher Institute is a semiautonomous division of The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the leading pro-abortion body in the United States.
"[W]hile we have seen reductions in some sexually transmitted infections (STIs), young people aged 16 to 24 still account for nearly half of STIs diagnosed despite making up only 12% of the population." JS: The rate of STIs has increased massively since the start of the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy. This is hardly surprising. Professor David Paton, who holds a chair in Economics at Nottingham University, has shown in a paper entitled "The economics of family planning and underage conceptions" (this paper is not available free online, but if you would like a copy please contact me) that family planning, and increased access to it, increases the likelihood that teenagers will engage in sexual activity.
"We have set out clear guidance to local areas on what works to reduce teenage pregnancy, drawn from the international evidence base and learning from areas with declining rates. Critical to accelerating progress is improving young people’s knowledge and use of effective contraception. Research in the USA found that 86% of the decline in the US teenage pregnancy rate was due to improved contraceptive use." JS: As if the government would know what works! The government only really listens to abortion and contraception providers, who have a vested interest in ensuring that the "evidence base" presented to governments suggests that governments give them more money and business opportunities. This research, on which the government relies, is no exception. A report in Science Daily about this research refers to "the study by Dr. Santelli of the Mailman School in conjunction with researchers at the Guttmacher Institute". The Guttmacher Institute is a semiautonomous division of The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the leading pro-abortion body in the United States.
JS: Indeed, Professor Paton points out in the paper to which I refer above: "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..."Elsewhere, Prof. Paton discusses a principle which in the insurance industry is called “moral hazard”. The principle is that the greater the level of coverage afforded by any insurance scheme the more likely the insurance holder will be to take chances. Applying this principle to the current debate, Prof. Paton explains: "For those youngsters who are not opposed in principle to abortion, it provides a way in which, if pregnancy occurs, birth can be avoided, i.e. if pregnancy occurs either through failed or non-use of contraception, there is a possible let out clause."
"We are therefore looking for a step change in both awareness and provision of the full range of contraception, including LARC [long acting reversible methods of contraception]." JS: "A step change" means more pressure for abortion, not least because LARCs act not just contraceptively but also abortifaciently.
"We are therefore looking for a step change in both awareness and provision of the full range of contraception, including LARC [long acting reversible methods of contraception]." JS: "A step change" means more pressure for abortion, not least because LARCs act not just contraceptively but also abortifaciently.
"From 2009-10 onwards, GPs will be given greater incentives, through the Quality and Outcomes Framework, to provide advice on sexual health – specifically advice on contraception, particularly long acting methods. To strengthen provision of contraception at abortion services, the standard NHS contract for 2009-10 includes a new clause to ensure that abortion providers improve access to contraception." JS: This means that doctors will be paid to facilitate increased sexual activity and abortion.
"Key to ensuring that all young people get the high quality support they need is for local authorities and PCTs to work together on joint needs assessments and to jointly commission contraception and sexual health services in the health, school/college and community youth settings that meet the needs of their teenage population." JS: There is nothing here at all about the role of parents. This glaring omission is yet more evidence that the government is determined to introduce children into the abortion culture - the culture of death which they work so hard to promote.
"We will shortly be publishing best practice guidance to provide specialist advice on commissioning reproductive health services." JS: The government defines "reproductive health" as including a right to abortion on demand.
"Working with the National Children’s Bureau, we will be developing a resource pack for schools..." JS: The National Children's Bureau sounds like an impartial official body. In fact, it is a radically pro-abortion and anti-family non-governmental organisation.
"To improve young people’s awareness, the Department of Health, with the Department for Children, Schools and Families, are developing a new information campaign aimed at increasing young people’s knowledge and trust in the full range of effective contraceptive methods, to be launched later this year. " JS: Trust? How can anyone trust contraception? To use contraception is to play Russian roulette with unplanned pregnancy and sexually-transmitted disease - the more one uses it, the more likely those things are to happen. There is no mention in the government's document about reducing the frequency of sexual intercourse, delaying the age of first intercourse or restricting intercourse to one long-term partner, let alone anything about abstinence. Yet it is the consistent and thorough promotion of abstinence encouragement which has been proven to work safely.
One needs to ask: Cui bono? Who benefits from the government's strategy? It would seem to be abortion providers, contraceptive manufacturers, the sex industry, and those doctors and other health professionals who let down their profession by going along with the government's policy. All at the expense of young people's health and happiness and disposable unborn children.
If you are reading this in England and Wales - and if you concerned about what the Government is imposing on our children, perhaps you will organize a meeting in your area at which I, or one of the SPUC team would be happy to speak. Contact me at johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
"We will shortly be publishing best practice guidance to provide specialist advice on commissioning reproductive health services." JS: The government defines "reproductive health" as including a right to abortion on demand.
"Working with the National Children’s Bureau, we will be developing a resource pack for schools..." JS: The National Children's Bureau sounds like an impartial official body. In fact, it is a radically pro-abortion and anti-family non-governmental organisation.
"To improve young people’s awareness, the Department of Health, with the Department for Children, Schools and Families, are developing a new information campaign aimed at increasing young people’s knowledge and trust in the full range of effective contraceptive methods, to be launched later this year. " JS: Trust? How can anyone trust contraception? To use contraception is to play Russian roulette with unplanned pregnancy and sexually-transmitted disease - the more one uses it, the more likely those things are to happen. There is no mention in the government's document about reducing the frequency of sexual intercourse, delaying the age of first intercourse or restricting intercourse to one long-term partner, let alone anything about abstinence. Yet it is the consistent and thorough promotion of abstinence encouragement which has been proven to work safely.
One needs to ask: Cui bono? Who benefits from the government's strategy? It would seem to be abortion providers, contraceptive manufacturers, the sex industry, and those doctors and other health professionals who let down their profession by going along with the government's policy. All at the expense of young people's health and happiness and disposable unborn children.
If you are reading this in England and Wales - and if you concerned about what the Government is imposing on our children, perhaps you will organize a meeting in your area at which I, or one of the SPUC team would be happy to speak. Contact me at johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
