by Matthew McCusker
The National Health Service in Britain has announced that it has successfully persuaded around 111,000 women to use so-called ‘long acting reversible contraceptives’ (LARCs) since the launch of the Quality and Outcomes Framework in 2009. The QOF linked doctor’s pay to meeting certain targets, including an increase of women on LARCs.
The study, published on 2nd April, analysed 581 GP practices and found that over the three years from 2009 to 2012 an additional 8,700 women had been prescribed methods showed an increased use of LARCs including ‘IUDs, implants and injectables’. The researchers extrapolated from this to suggest a total of 110,000 women in total who were using these methods as a result of the programme. Each of these forms of contraception can cause an abortion by preventing the embryo from implanting in the lining of the womb.
“LARC prescribing was stable prior to April 2009, with a decreasing gradient of −0.4% annually,” report revealed. “This changed to an increasing trend in LARC prescribing of 4% annually after the introduction of QOF contraception incentives. Overall, the mean number of LARC prescribed by practices increased by 10% in the 4 years after-QOF contraception indicators were implemented.”
When the QOF was announced in 2009, John Smeaton, Chief Executive of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), cited studies that show “family planning, and increased access to it, increases the likelihood that teenagers will engage in sexual activity. “
“To use contraception is to play Russian roulette with unplanned pregnancy and sexually-transmitted disease – the more one uses it, the more likely those things are to happen,” he said.
“There is no mention in the government's document about reducing the frequency of sexual intercourse, delaying the age of first intercourse, or restricting intercourse to one long-term partner, let alone anything about abstinence,” he added.
“One needs to ask: Qui bono? Who benefits from the government's strategy?” Smeaton said. “It would seem to be abortion providers, contraceptive manufacturers, the sex industry, and those doctors and other health professionals who let down their profession by going along with the government's policy. All at the expense of young people's health and happiness and disposable unborn children.”
This study comes just weeks after it emerged that NHS trusts were burning the remains of unborn children alongside ‘clinical waste’ and, in two cases, as fuel for hospital heating systems.
