A mum whose daughter died while she was taking the pill today angrily attacked a call to allow school nurses to prescribe the morning after pill and other contraceptives.

The Royal College of Nursing yesterday called for all secondary schools to have weekly drop-in centres where pupils could get advice about contraception and other health issues.

The nurses, meeting at their annual conference in Harrogate, believe the move could help slash the country's teenage pregnancy rate which is the highest in Western Europe.

In Bradford latest figures show 72 girls under 16 became pregnant in 1996 compared to 65 the year before, the third successive annual rise.

But Jenny Bacon, of Allerton, who launched a national campaign following the death of her daughter Caroline, 16, nearly five years ago 18 months after she was prescribed the Pill, today branded the idea appalling.

She said youngsters needed to be taught to say no to sex rather than be given easy access to contraceptives and also warned more about the dangers of sexually transmitted disease.

"It's more or less giving the message if you fancy somebody tomorrow night have sex and if anything goes wrong pop in here and it will all be all right.

"We've got to spend more time getting young people to say no otherwise they're going to damage themselves.

"They're talking about this Pill as if it's a sweet - it's a dangerous drug."

Derek Simmonds, manager of Bradford Health Promotion's HIV and Sexual Health Team, said he personally supported giving specially trained school nurses the authority to give emergency contraception under specified rules backed up by doctors.

T&A Opinion

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