Madam, – As reported by Mark Hennessy (Opinion, December 17th) the number of pregnancies in England and Wales, already high, is rising again. The answer according to Southwark and Lambeth boroughs in London is to give contraceptive pills to 16-year-old girls and we now have the Law Reform Commission recommending that these pills should be available to 16-year-olds here (Front page, December 22nd).
This is despite the well-documented knowledge that this will have the same results as occurred in Britain. As Dr John Lalor in a letter to The Irish Times (March 29th, 2007) stated: “For 30 years I have worked as a GP in a society where the number of teenage pregnancies, the number of sexually transmitted diseases and the number of single mothers have increased exponentially. Free contraception, early sexual education and free health care have been available. My view, extraordinarily is that the British model is an absolute failure”.
Do we really wish to follow the British model, already demonstrated to have been a disaster, or will we follow the path of encouraging responsible behaviour leading to healthy relationships?
It should not be overlooked that the policies adopted in Britain are fuelled by the vast profits accruing from the sale of contraceptives and the carrying out of abortions. – Yours, etc,