Gillick finds an ally in Tebbit

by Peter Stanford VICTORIA Gillick has found an ally in the Conservative party chairman, Norman Tebbit, in her campaign against the "bad advice" given to "impressionable young people" in teenage magazines.
Mr Tebbit, who has taken a tough line on moral standards in recent speeches, has also agreed to raise the question of DHSS guidelines allowing the termination in under-16s of pregnancies without parental consent.
In a letter to Mrs Mick, the outspoken politician said that he would take up the matter with Norman Fowler, Secretary of State for Social Services.
Mrs Gillick, who last year lost her case in the House of Lords over attempts to stop the prescription of contraceptives to under-16s without parental consent, has now taken up the issue of the content of "teenage" magazines, aimed at 12-16 year olds. She wrote to Mr Tebbit and sent him a copy of one of the magazines in question.
According to Mrs Gillick articles in these magazines encourage children to indulge in sex at an early age. The magazines are "clear examples" of "how some adults have seen teenage promiscuity as a very lucrative source of business", Mrs Gillick told Mr Tebbit.
Under the guise of telling young people about contraception, these magazines are "in fact merely creating a new and wider market for their own product" she said.
In his reply, Mr Tebbit stressed that some of the advice contained in the magazines was useful if directed at those mature enough to understand it. However, he went on to say that such advice was "most unsuitable for young, impressionable people".
Mr Tebbit informed Mrs Gillick that he had asked the Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd, to advise him about enacting the 1955 Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act against such material.
Bridget Legood, managing editor of Just 17, one of the' magazines singled out by Mrs Gillick, rejected the view that her publication was seeking to exploit youngsters and push them towards promiscuity. She stressed that Just 17 in many cases was the "only confidante" for young girls, and that the advice they were given was always carefully considered and xesponsible.