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“Morning-after pill” hits market
Teen pregnancy rate cited

Despite opposition in England, the “morning-after” pill is now to be made freely available to girls under 16 in Wales in a bid to cut teenage pregnancy rates.

Making the abortifacient pill available without charge to girls under 16 at pharmacies caused a storm of protest when it was introduced in some areas of England earlier this year. The south Wales town of Bridgend is one area where a pilot plan, introducing the legal distribution of the drug, is planned in Wales. The region was chosen because of the unusually high rates of out-of-wedlock pregnancy in Wales. The pregnancy rate has now risen from 47 per thousand to 53 per thousand in girls aged between 15 and 17 in the country. Figures vary from around 30 per 1,000 in Ceredigion and Monmouth, to 52 in Cardiff, but more than 70 per 1,000 in Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, and Merthyr—around 64 percent above the average rate for England and Wales.

The Welsh Assembly’s health-promotion division also wants to stimulate discussion about why more teenagers become pregnant in poorer areas like Merthyr, Tydfil, and Caerphilly.