As of today, the morning-after pill is now available to girls under the age of consent in the UK.
The shift has come about thanks to the European Medicines Agency, who changed the license of ellaOne (which can be effective up to five days after sex), so that it is now available for use by any woman of reproductive age in Europe.
While the move has been welcomed by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), it has obviously been greeted with some criticism.
Talking of his concerns, Norman Wells, director of the Family Education Trust, told
The Guardian: ‘there are plenty of health and social reasons against making ellaOne available to minors.’
He went on: ‘The availability of the morning-after pill is encouraging some adolescents to engage in casual sex when they might not otherwise have done so, and the supply of emergency birth control to young people is associated with an increase in sexually transmitted infections.’
It’s important to note that the morning-after pill is not 100 per cent effective in preventing pregnancy.
Although it’s causing an uproar, girls under the age of consent were already able to get hold of the emergency contraception Levonelle (which works up to three days after unprotected sex) at some pharmacies in the UK.
It should also be noted that girls wanting to buy ellaOne – which costs £34.99 – will have to discuss their sexual activities and the pills consequence with the Pharmacist beforehand.
The move comes as figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in February revealed that although the UK still has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in Europe, the rate of conception for under-18s in England and Wales is at its lowest since records began in 1969.
