13-year-old girls at nine schools in Southampton, England, have been fitted with birth control implants without their parents' knowledge.

Norman Wells, director of the Family Education Trust, said: "Schemes like these inevitably lead to boys putting pressure on girls to have sex. The last thing they should be doing is fuelling the flames of promiscuity and the sexual health crisis with schemes that treat parents, the law and basic moral principles with contempt."[Telegraph, 8 February]

John Smeaton, SPUC director, commented: "These implants not only act as contraceptives, but can also act as abortifacients, killing newly-conceived embryos by stopping them from implanting in the womb."

Other stories:

• Leader of Anglican Communion says legalising assisted suicide would spell "disaster"
• Morning-after pills dispensed by vending machine at US university
• Sarah Palin’s touching account of living with a son with Down’s syndrome [Mail, 6 February]