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People “horrified” over teen pill move

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3 November 2010

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People have been left “horrified” over a move to offer the contraceptive pill to young teenage girls on the Isle of Wight, the Commons was told last night.

The plans could see girls as young as 13 given a month’s worth of the contraception when they visit a chemist for the morning-after pill.

Girls would be able to get the contraceptive pill from pharmacists behind their parents’ backs, Andrew Turner, Tory MP for the Isle of Wight, claimed.

GPs would also be kept in the dark about the prescriptions, it was claimed.

At health questions, he said: “On the Isle of Wight the local NHS has decided that contraceptive pills may be given to girls as young as 13.

“Their parents and even their GPs aren’t involved.

“Nowhere else, I am told, shares this approach. Many of my constituents are horrified.”

He asked Health Secretary Andrew Lansley for his views on the situation.

Mr Lansley told him: “These were decisions made locally and indeed we do support local decision-making.

“We are going to make sure that issues of that kind are taken not only in the health service but alongside local authorities as part of their public health function.”

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