A HEALTH body in Comet country has set no lower age limit at which parents of children seeking an abortion, the morning after pill (MAP) or contraception must be informed – despite Stevenage having one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the East of

A HEALTH body in Comet country has set no lower age limit at which parents of children seeking an abortion, the morning after pill (MAP) or contraception must be informed - despite Stevenage having one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the East of England.

The East and North Hertfordshire Primary Care Trust follows guidelines from the Department of Health which state that "the duty of confidentiality applies to all under 16s".

However, the guidelines state that "the duty of confidentiality is not absolute if a health professional believes there is a risk to the health, safety or welfare of a young person which is so serious as to outweigh the young person's right to privacy..."

A spokesman for the PCT said: "Young people under the age of 16 have the same rights to confidentiality as any other patient.

"However, the young person is always strongly encouraged to tell her parents or carer (if they take the MAP) and is advised to make a follow up visit to her GP or family planning clinic.

"Strict protocols and guidelines are in place to protect the young and vulnerable.

"If someone under 16 is not judged mature enough to consent to treatment, the consultation itself will still remain confidential."

Between 2002-4, 45 per 1,000 females aged 15 to 17 in Stevenage fell pregnant, 22 per 1,000 in Mid Bedfordshire fell pregnant and 28 per 1,000 in North Hertfordshire fell pregnant compared to the national average of 43 per 1,000 and the East of England average of 35 per 1,000.

The spokesman for the PCT added: "Hertfordshire has a 10-year strategy to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies. We are making good progress towards achieving a 45 per cent reduction in under-18 teenage conception rates by 2010.

"To help us meet this target the NHS, Hertfordshire County Council, district councils, schools, youth and voluntary organisations are working together to make sure young people have access to accurate information, advice, education and have an up-to-date knowledge of local services to help them make informed choices."

Nadine Dorries, MP for Mid Beds, said: "I completely disagree with this approach at a time when the UK has one of the highest abortion rates in Europe, the highest number of teenage pregnancies and a large increase in the number of people with sexually transmitted infections and diseases increasing at a rate which can only be described as alarming.

"The current message effectively says to young people, 'we will make abortion, the morning after pill and contraception easier for girls to obtain so don't worry about getting pregnant or protecting yourself'.

"We should be sending out a message that says, 'you should be protecting yourself and think twice - terminating a pregnancy is a big deal with long term consequences'.

"We should be protecting our young girls and not exposing them."

A spokesman for Churches Together in Stevenage said: "As Christians we believe that marriage is the only proper setting for sexual relationships, which also avoids pregnancies in this young age group.

"If a young girl does however find herself pregnant outside marriage, we would always encourage her to discuss with her parents her response to that event."

The Rev David Hague of St Peter's Church, in Broadwater Crescent, Stevenage, added: "Parents should be kept in the picture and we should be encouraging children to be children. They are growing up much too quickly."

l Great Yarmouth has the highest teenage conception rate in the East of England at 61 per 1,000 and the Uttlesford district of Essex has the lowest at 15 per 1,000.

(The statistics were taken from the NHS Eastern Region Public Health Observatory).