SPUC expresses fears over government's schools strategy

SPUC expresses fears over government's schools strategy London, - The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has described aspects of the government's new schools strategy as "another ratcheting-up of the targeting of young people to be victims of the culture of death." SPUC has also accused Mr Ed Balls, the minister responsible, of presenting misleading data on teenage pregnancy.

Paul Tully, SPUC general secretary, said: "The Children's Plan promises a review of best practice in sex education. Every review since 1990 has led to calls for 'more of the same' policy - sex education and wider provision of sex facilities (abortion, contraception, sex advice) to children and teenagers. "The government's reviewers and advisors are not only committed to the promotion of explicit sex information and abortion services. Many of them are actually providers of such services - funded by the government - like Brook, and the abortion service BPAS. "In the policy document, Mr Balls writes: 'We will also increase young people's knowledge of effective contraception and improve their access to advice through encouraging the provision of on-site health services in schools, colleges and youth centres.' This is bound to mean that the review will call for more of the same." Paul Tully also criticised the minister over his representation of data on teenage pregnancy. "Government statistics show that the number of under-18 conceptions in England and Wales has actually risen each year since 2001." Teenage pregnancy is calculated by adding the number of births and abortions for that age-group. Under-18 conceptions in England and Wales rose from 40,990 in 2001 to 42,325 in 2005. Mr Ed Balls MP, secretary of state for children, schools and families, published his department's Children's Plan yesterday.