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15/09/2006
Emergency pill fails to lower abortion rate
A family planning expert says that the availability of the emergency "morning after" pill has failed to significantly reduce the abortion rate.
Easy over the counter availability of emergency contraception has not had a notable effect on rates of pregnancy and abortion, according to an editorial in this week’s British Medical Journal.
Professor Anna Glasier, director of family planning and well woman services of Lothian Primary Care NHS Trust, Edinburgh, has questioned the usefulness of emergency contraception, although she says it does help some women who do not want to get pregnant. However, while use of this form of contraception has increased in the UK in recent years, the abortion rate is continuing to rise.
In 1984 only 1% of women requesting an abortion said they had used the morning after pill to try and prevent the pregnancy, in 1996 this figure had risen to 6% of women, a figure that doubled to 12% in 2002.
Emergency contraception has been heralded as the solution to rising abortion rates, says Professor Glasier, but in the UK, abortion rates have increased from 11 per 1,000 women aged 15-44 in 1984 (136,388 abortions) to 17.8 per 1,000 women in 2004 (185,400 abortions) despite the increased use of emergency contraception.
Ten different studies carried out in different countries showed that giving women a supply of emergency contraception to keep at home increased its use by twofold or threefold, but had no measurable effect on rates of pregnancy or abortion.
Most women who did not use their supply, said they did not realise they had put themselves at risk of pregnancy.
Professor Glasier writes: “If you are looking for an intervention that will reduce abortion rates, emergency contraception may not be the solution and perhaps you should concentrate most on encouraging people to use contraception before or during sex, not after it.”
Advice groups have urged the government to provide better access to contraceptives via wider distribution of free condoms and emergency pills across healthcare services.
(SP/KMcA)
Easy over the counter availability of emergency contraception has not had a notable effect on rates of pregnancy and abortion, according to an editorial in this week’s British Medical Journal.
Professor Anna Glasier, director of family planning and well woman services of Lothian Primary Care NHS Trust, Edinburgh, has questioned the usefulness of emergency contraception, although she says it does help some women who do not want to get pregnant. However, while use of this form of contraception has increased in the UK in recent years, the abortion rate is continuing to rise.
In 1984 only 1% of women requesting an abortion said they had used the morning after pill to try and prevent the pregnancy, in 1996 this figure had risen to 6% of women, a figure that doubled to 12% in 2002.
Emergency contraception has been heralded as the solution to rising abortion rates, says Professor Glasier, but in the UK, abortion rates have increased from 11 per 1,000 women aged 15-44 in 1984 (136,388 abortions) to 17.8 per 1,000 women in 2004 (185,400 abortions) despite the increased use of emergency contraception.
Ten different studies carried out in different countries showed that giving women a supply of emergency contraception to keep at home increased its use by twofold or threefold, but had no measurable effect on rates of pregnancy or abortion.
Most women who did not use their supply, said they did not realise they had put themselves at risk of pregnancy.
Professor Glasier writes: “If you are looking for an intervention that will reduce abortion rates, emergency contraception may not be the solution and perhaps you should concentrate most on encouraging people to use contraception before or during sex, not after it.”
Advice groups have urged the government to provide better access to contraceptives via wider distribution of free condoms and emergency pills across healthcare services.
(SP/KMcA)
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