The Catholic Church in Scotland has described as “sinister” government plans to open family planning services near schools as one method of tackling teenage pregnancies.
According to the Herald Scotland, the Scottish Catholic Education Service felt compelled to write to ministers in response to a draft proposal on teenage pregnancies which contained plans for drop-in centres towards offering the so-calle ‘Morning After Pill’ in a “youth-friendly approach”.
“We find it sinister that this draft strategy proposes that sexual health service drop-in centres should be situated ‘in or close to’ schools. This smacks of an underhand strategy which appears determined to impose a moral standpoint in direct opposition to the moral perspectives proposed by Catholic schools and to the wishes of parents who choose Catholic education for their children,” the Education Service submission stated.
The government proposal is built, in part, on figures for teenage pregnancy which, although declining across the country, show that teenagers in deprived areas are five times more likely to become pregnant, and on assertions by some local health services that opening drop-in centres would be a positive addition to the Sexual Health and Parenthood (RSHP) education offered by schools.
The Scottish Catholic Education Service, however, challenged this, stating: “We dispute the assertion that it is necessary to combine RSHP education with the provision of sexual health services including contraception, emergency contraception and access to abortion. Catholic schools cannot be required to offer such services or to signpost young people towards them.”
