A GOVERNMENT Minister yesterday backed a plan offering free condoms to
children as young as 12 in an attempt to cut the numbers of under-age
pregnancies.
Amid a row over the move, Junior Health Minister Baroness Cumberlege
defended the decision of North Birmingham Health Authority to hand out
contraceptives to young girls.
Condoms are being distributed at Shard End youth club by a nurse
trained in family planning. Around 20 girls aged 12 and upwards attend a
weekly advice session at the club's health clinic.
Baroness Cumberlege said North Birmingham had one of the highest
teenage pregnancy rates in the country.
She told the Royal College of Nursing annual congress in Bournemouth:
''I think it's important that advice is given for girls -- that should
be the mainstay of our effort to reduce teenage pregnancies.''
RCN general secretary Christine Hancock said: ''I think it's important
that we have at last a Minister in this Government who is realistic
about the problems of vulnerable youngsters and the very high rate of
teenage pregnancies.''
Britain has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in the
Western world.
Earlier, a senior nurse claimed teenagers should be able to get advice
on contraception from high street shops such as Virgin Megastore and The
Body Shop.
Baroness Cumberlege also announced that nurses would be able to
prescribe from a limited list of drugs and medical appliances from
October.
Miss Hancock urged nurses not to rely on their uniforms to protect
them from attack. Respect for the traditional uniform had disappeared to
such an extent that nurses were now being preyed upon, she said.
The warning came as an RCN survey of 1100 nurses showed that one in
five community nurses have had their property vandalised by patients in
the past 12 months.
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