Today’s Sunday Telegraph reports that in some areas of rural New South Wales there is an epidemic of teenage pregnancies. The story is based on the findings of the NSW Health’s Mothers and Babies Report which finds that in some rural areas the teenage birth rate is 6 per cent, compared with 1.6 per cent in more densely populated areas. One reason, it seems, is the lack of sex education in the country but also the unwillingness of some country pharmacists to stock condoms or the morning-after pill. The article quotes the 19 year old mother of a young girl who says she would not have become pregnant if she had not moved to the Huner valley town of Merriwa from the Central Coast where she lived previously and where was able to buy contraceptives. The Merriwa pharmacist told the Sunday Telegraph that he would not stock condoms for “personal ethical reasons”.
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RURAL TEEN PREGNANCY EPIDEMIC4 comments to RURAL TEEN PREGNANCY EPIDEMIC |
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This is deplorable – it should be the responsibility of the government once this information became available that they encouraged a more equitable means of distribution of medicine, if the phamacists religious beliefs prohibit him from doing his job in certain ways.
But really, what’s next, and always at the expense of women’s liberties – why aren’t there any religions that impinge on men’s freedoms and rights?
condoms are available at the supermarket , a vending machine at the local club and the youth centre (free). Morning after pill is available at the hospital. education is supplied on an ongoing basis from local health workers , young parents are supported by community health workers. Its a media blow up.
I live in Merriwa and i am a youth worker
Thanks for providing this information. I am sorry that I relied on an inaccurate media report but of course I did not so wittingly. I am glad that 5the young people of Merriwa are not as badly off as was reported.
All pharmacists should stock contraceptives, regardless of their religious beliefs.
Do reasons such as religious beliefs mean that a pharmacist might choose not to stock epilepsy drugs because he/she decides that we epileptics are possessed by the devil?