Girls 'get contraceptive implants'

Teenage pregnancy rates rose slightly in 2002

Doctors are giving girls as young as 14 implants which make them infertile for three years without getting their parents' consent, says a report.

About 400 girls aged under 16 have been fitted with the contraceptive implants, claims the Sunday Times.

Rods inserted into the arm release hormones to stop egg production.

The paper says the figures emerged in a parliamentary answer, as ministers try to lower the UK's teenage pregnancy rate - the highest in western Europe.

Shadow children's minister Tim Loughton, who obtained the figures, said he was concerned by the practice.

He told the paper: "This will not help young people have a more responsible attitude to sex.

The concern of doctors is to meet the needs of their individual patients BMA spokeswoman

"It is no good making sure girls do not become pregnant if they are going to sleep with numerous partners and get infections."

There are medical concerns about giving girls artificial hormones in this way, but some doctors say it is preferable to the pill, which some girls forget to take.

A spokeswoman for the British Medical Association said some girls who were having sex came to their doctors for advice about contraception.

She added: "The concern of doctors is to meet the needs of their individual patients and statistics cannot reveal what those needs are.

"But it is obvious that, in some cases, those needs are best met by contraception of this nature."

Rise in teenage pregnancies

A spokeswoman for the government's teenage pregnancy unit agreed that it was a decision for the individual to make.

She added: "We have got to make sure that they have the information to make the choices for themselves."

Doctors are not obliged by law to tell an underage girl's parents that they have given her contraception.

A spokeswoman for the Royal College of General Practitioners said GPs discussed with under-16s the advantage of involving the parents and only gave the treatment if they were mature enough to fully understand it.

In the latest figures, the number of under-18s in England and Wales becoming pregnant increased by 2.2% from 2001 to 2002.

The government has pledged to cut the rate of conceptions in under 18s by 50% by 2010.