A study published in the British Medical Journal shows that abortion rates in Britain climbed sharply between 1984 and 2004, rising from 11 to 17.8 per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44, even after the morning-after pill became available without a prescription at pharmacies in 2001.
Professor Anna Glasier, who leads family planning services for an NHS trust in Edinburgh, said emergency contraception should be viewed as a backup measure rather than a population-level solution. She called for greater focus on contraceptive methods used before intercourse.
A government health spokesperson noted that emergency contraception had never been presented as a fix for the country's abortion trends.
Britain's rate is broadly similar to those of France (16.7 per 1,000) and the US (20.9 per 1,000), but considerably higher than Germany (7.4), Italy (11), and Spain (9). In France, the pill is available without prescription, with costs partly reimbursed for adults and free for minors. The US legalized over-the-counter sales to women 18 and older in August 2006, and some American experts credit the pill with helping reduce abortion numbers there.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in September 2006, in its own words.