Pharmacist breaks ranks over failure of contraceptives

BY SIMON CALDWELL
BRITAIN’S controversial policy of trying to fight teenage pregnancy by making contraceptives and the morning-after pill more easily available to the young has been criticised by a pharmacist.
An article in the Pharmaceutical ournal urged chemists throughout the country to wake up to the fact that the failure of contraceptives is a major cause of teenage pregnancy. It claims that condoms are so unreliable when used by young people that packets should carry health warnings.
The journal, published by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, also attacks the dishonesty of describing the morning-after pill as “emergency contraception” when a key mode of operation is the very early abortion of a fertilised ovum.
“The teenage pregnancy statistics for the UK are terrifying,’ wrote RoseMary Baker, the author of the article and a pharmacist from the Wirral. “What are we as a profession doing about it?” She said: “If we as pharmacists really want to contribute to the sexual health of the nation we should be fighting for greater truth to be told regarding contraceptive failure and the consequences of that fail ure. We should be spreading the news that there is some chance of failure with all contraceptives and that failure leads to a baby for life or an abortion, the memory of which will surely stay for a lifetime.” Miss Baker said that most pharmacists would not sell alcohol, cigarettes or chocolate at the medicines counter because it would be contrary to promoting good health. “Are we being as fair to the public about sex as we are about smoking or eating sweets or drinking alcohol?” she asked.
“Do we highlight the failure rate of contraceptives or do we couch the true failure rate in terms like ‘if used effectively’? Do we shout from the rooftops the fact that many progesterone only pills are likely to fail if the dose is more than three hours late?
“Have we fought for a Government health warning on condoms which says ‘this product is likely to fail if you have never used a condom before and you are fumbling around in the dark at the back of the youth club’? Do we help to punch home the truth that sexually transmitted infections really are transmitted sexually, are highly unpleasant and often lead to infertility later in life?” She asked why “we as a profession [are] going along with the lie that post-coital contraception is not abortifacient”, she added.
“Someone, and I do not know who, decided that pregnancy does not begin until an embryo is implanted in the lining of the uterus. How can that be?” she said. “As scientists we should recognised, that a new life form, genetically distinct from either parent, comes into existence when the sperm and ovum fuse. Once that new life form exists, call it what you will, to destroy it is an abortifacient action. Some may not consider that important but we should be telling people the facts so that they can make their own ethical decision.” She added: “Pharmacists who oppose the availability of postcoital contraception over the counter are branded as, at best, killjoys and more often, religious bigots. In fact these pharmacist are the ones who have their minds tuned to the reality of the situation.” Britain has the highest rates of sexually transmitted infections and teenage pregnancies in Europe, with nearly one in five girls saying they have been pregnant at least once by the age of 18, a third of whom ended their pregnancies with abortions. Successive govern ments have made it increasingly easier for young people to obtain contraceptive pills and condoms, with contraceptive-based sex education also being taught in schools to children at ever younger ages.
But researchers at Nottingham University have discovered no evidence to show such policies work, instead saying the evidence indicates they are making matters worse.
Official figures revealed last month show that pregnancy rates among under-18s continue to soar in spite of £63 million spent on contraceptive-based strategies in the last three years alone.