Fertility Care Scotland (FCS) volunteers deliver a “pro- abstinence” message to thousands of schoolchildren across the country, urging pupils to reject “lifestyle choices” that may damage their fertility.
The group’s approach has worried MSPs, who believe the organisation’s message to youngsters contradicts the Scottish Executive’s official sexual health strategy.
Scotland has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in Europe and earlier this year it was revealed that the number of sexual infections, such as chlamydia and gonorrhoea, diagnosed in young Scots, has doubled in the past four years.
FCS’s purpose is to promote the Billings method of birth regulation, a natural family planning technique that avoids the use of contraception.
The group advises adults that it is possible to have unprotected sex without having children, an approach favoured by many couples who disapprove of the pill.
But the group’s remit also includes supporting “youth education”, through which they offer a “positive sexual health programme in schools”.
FCS is “core funded” by the Scottish Executive, which means the bulk of the group’s resources come from taxpayers. Accounts show that the organisation received around £6000 each year between 1997 and 2002, after which its funding rose to £10,000 per annum.
The group states that the ministerial funding covers administration expenses for providing a natural family planning service to adults. But documents also reveal the extent of the group’s activities in classrooms across Scotland.
An FCS report from 2003-04 shows that the group made 26 presentations to 2262 pupils in the previous 15 months. Between 1998 and 2001, FCS says it visited 89 schools and reached 9631 young people. In its 2002 annual report, volunteers estimated that it made presentations to 3128 pupils.
The charity’s accounts also show that schools are charged for “tutor fees” and travel expenses in the course of the group’s duties. Between 2002 and 2005, Glasgow City Council paid FCS around £1900 for speakers to give talks on “sex and health” and “religious and moral” education.
FCS’s core funding status has worried family planning campaigners who believe the group’s views do not chime with ministerial policy. The Executive’s sexual health strategy, which was launched in January this year, was a “harm reduction” model that encouraged young people to use contraception if they had sex.
Tim Street, director of the Family Planning Association, said it is “dangerous” for any group to focus exclusively on abstinence. “ We need to explain the consequences of having sex and present all the options. Being pro-abstinence doesn’t do that,” he said.
Michael McGrath, director of the Catholic Education Service, said FCS was an “orthodox” organisation that was welcome in denominational schools. “FCS is a resource that is used by schools on some occasions,” he said.
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