Curbs on doctors giving Pill to under-16s

Doctors were today banned from handing the Pill to under-16s without giving them intensive counselling first.

In a new move to crack down on teen pregnancies and venereal disease, guidance was issued to all GPs, nurses and other healthcare workers insisting contraception should not simply be supplied on demand.

The move is the first such guidance since the Gillick judgment almost 20 years ago, when the House of Lords ruled that under-16s could be given contraception without their parents being informed.

Under the new rules, health professionals must not merely comply if a schoolgirl or boy asks for the Pill or condoms. Instead, the doctor must take time to "establish a rapport" with the young person and give them support to make an informed choice. Doctors must discuss both the emotional and physical implications of having sex, including the risks of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.

They must also try to find out if the child is in an abusive sexual relationship or is being coerced into having intercourse by an adult or another young person.

Where possible, children should be persuaded to talk to their usual family doctor, parent or carer. If the child refuses to talk, the prescription can still go ahead.

If a girl asks for an abortion, she should be urged strongly to involve her parents or, if she refuses, to book an appointment with a specialist youth worker or talk to another family member.

The last guidance issued to GPs was in 1986 immediately after the Lords ruled against campaigning mother Victoria Gillick who argued contraception should only be given to under-16s with parental

approval. The new document puts more emphasis on warning children of the dangers of promiscuity but the same duty of confidentiality remains.

Under the old guidelines, contraception was meant to be given if a person's wellbeing was at risk which, critics say, has been interpreted as prescribe on demand. A report this week revealed a record number of young people with sexual diseases in Britain, which also has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in Europe.