SPUC condemns plans to give birth control jabs to 14-year-olds WESTMINSTER, - The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children has condemned suggestions by Margaret Hodge, the Children's Minister, that girls as young as 14 should be given abortifacient birth control injections. John Smeaton, SPUC's National Director said: "This is yet another irresponsible and desperate attempt by the Government to deal with a problem it has aided and abetted for years. "Depo Provera is misleadingly promoted simply as contraception, but it can have an abortifacient function by rendering the lining of the womb hostile to the newly conceived embryo. Young people must not be made the victims of government ideology on how to reduce teenage pregnancies and misinformation on methods of birth control. "Moreover, birth control injections offer no protection against sexually transmitted infections and are associated with significant health risks. The Government should also be aware that providing underage girls with birth control - no questions asked - is to collude with acts of sexual abuse. "If Government ministers are serious about tackling the problems of teenage pregnancy and the spread of STIs, they need to have the courage to rethink completely their policies rather than to keep funding the kind of programmes that created this crisis in the first place."