An influential group of NHS experts is urging the Scottish Government to allow the morning-after pill to be handed out in schools.

The morning-after pill can act as an abortifacient.

However, the demand has faced criticism for being irresponsible and for pouring “more fuel on the flames”.

In a written submission to a Holyrood committee, the Scottish Sexual Health Lead Clinicians Group (SSHLCG) accused ministers of “running scared” of its critics over contraception in schools, the Scotland on Sunday newspaper reports.

The group said: “Why is emergency contraception not available in schools? Why are condoms and contraception not accessible? Vaccination against a sexually transmitted infection (HPV) is given in schools, why can’t pregnancy and other STIs be prevented?”

The Scottish parliament’s Health and Sport Committee are looking into the high rate of teenage pregnancy in the country, which is one of the highest in western Europe.

Ministers had hoped to cut the pregnancy rate for under 16s to 6.8 pregnancies per 1,000 girls by 2010.

But the pregnancy rate for that year was 7.1 per 1,000.

John Deighan, the parliamentary officer for the Catholic Church in Scotland, said the SSHLCG call was irresponsible.

He said: “They are promoting the behaviour that causes the problem and this simply pours more fuel on the flames.”

He added: “Children are already being sexualised to an outrageous extent and not enough effort is being made to discourage it.”

Schools in Dumfries and Galloway have already come under fire for handing out morning-after pills to teenage girls without parental consent.

Ann Allen, Family Education Trust executive member, said she thought the programme was “very ill-conceived and badly thought out”.

According to one expert, Professor David Paton, easier availability of the Morning After Pill may be associated with an increase in the number of STIs as couples engage in unprotected sex knowing they can use the Morning After Pill as a ‘back-up’.

Speaking in 2011 Professor Paton of Nottingham University, said that the claim that providing access to emergency birth control without prescription will lead to fewer unwanted pregnancies was “completely without foundation”.  

Dr Paton said: “Every single piece of peer-reviewed research on this subject to date has found no evidence that easier access to EBC leads to lower rates of unwanted pregnancies, abortions or teenage pregnancies.

“This research is extensive, publicly available and the conclusions are accepted by those in favour and against the principle of EBC. Given this, it is hard to understand why policy makers would make such ill-informed claims.”

Professor Paton added that the most recent research suggests that easier access to EBC may lead to higher rates of sexually transmitted infections.

This claim is based on a new study by Professor Paton and colleague Sourafel Girma published in the Journal of Health Economics called The impact of emergency birth control on teen pregnancy and STIs.