Sexual Health: Concern that protocol will deter Children from seeking advice
By Gordon Carson
Children Now
31 May 2005
Sexual health and children's rights campaigners are worried that the new pan-London protocol for professionals dealing with sexually active young people (Children Now, 25-31 May) will stop teenagers from accessing sexual health services and could potentially criminalise those in consensual relationships.
The row has broken out as new figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed more 13- to 15-year-old girls in England and Wales are becoming pregnant.
Ironically, from 2001 to 2003 London had the highest pregnancy rate for this age group of all England's government regions, at 10 per 1,000.
The southeast London rate of 13.6...