Sex Education
Newly-appointed education secretary Ruth Kelly was embroiled in a debate about sex education in schools on Sunday. Pro-life and family planning groups called on the minister, a devout Roman Catholic, to spell out her views on abortion and contraception. Miss Kelly was reported to have made it known that she did not want to work in the Department of Health because of her religious beliefs.
Stakeholder Response: Pro Life Party
Julia Millington of the ProLife Party said: "We imagine that Ruth Kelly’s own experience as a mother will stand her in good stead.
"We hope that she will adopt a much more holistic approach to sex education, discouraging sexual activity at an early age and warning young people about the dangers of casual sex.
"Current sex education programmes as part of the government's strategy to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies appears to be having the opposite effect. The number of pregnancies, abortions and sexually transmitted diseases continue to rise rapidly amongst teenagers. Increasing teenagers access to contraception and abortion obviously isn't the answer.
"The distribution of the abortifacient morning-after pill in some schools is particularly alarming. This pill, which is erroneously marketed as "emergency contraception", contains an extremely large dose of hormones and has never been the subject of clinical trials on teenage girls.
"Many of these issues need to be tackled in collaboration with the Department of Health which will have to deal with the resulting problems of infertility in the future."
Stakeholder Response: Institute of Education
Michael Reiss, professor of science education at the
"In the light of this, concern has been expressed in some quarters at Ruth Kelly’s appointment as Secretary of State for Education. Ruth Kelly is a devout Roman Catholic and purportedly against contraception and abortion. But we shouldn’t make assumptions about people based on their religion, and we need to wait to see what her policies will be.
"In a multicultural society, such as the
"Young people do need access to contraception but they also need to know the law on the age of sexual consent and to have the opportunity to discuss when it’s right for them to start a sexual relationship. They need to do this in schools where they don’t get bullied because of their sexual orientation."
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