Girls text for morning-after pill

Schoolgirls will be able to request the morning-after pill by text message in a scheme being introduced later this year

Six Oxfordshire schools are to take part in the project after a rise in the number of teenage pregnancies in the county.

Any girl at the four schools in Oxford and two in Banbury will be given the opportunity to ask for emergency contraception if they have had unprotected sex, or their contraception has failed.

Child protection staff will step in if any girl aged between 11 and 13 uses the service.

The text message service will be introduced in July by Oxfordshire County Council and the Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust, which have refused to name the schools involved.

Hilary Pannack, chief executive of teenage pregnancy charity Straight Talking, welcomed the move.

She said: "I think it's an excellent idea. But there needs to be more in place - there needs to be good quality sex and relationship education as well.

"Some girls won't want to talk to people face to face, and the process of getting the emergency contraceptive pill should be made easy for them. It's not going to cause promiscuity.

I'M NOT SURE ABOUT THIS TXT THING, IT MAKES IT TOO EASY, TOO ACCESSIBLE. AND I ALSO THINK PEOPLE WILL JUST MISTREAT THE SYSTEM.