Britain’s second largest supermarket group, Sainsbury’s, has received the full support of the Department of Health in its planned involvement in a pilot scheme to hand out free morning-after pills to under 16-year-olds.
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Sainsbury’s will offer the emergency contraception pill to girls in five areas with high teenage pregnancy rates. The areas in the initiative, which is part of a wider programme to reduce Britain’s teenage pregnancy rate, the highest in western Europe, are Cardiff and Bridgend in South Wales, Fallowfield and Sale in Greater Manchester, and Bristol.
A government spokeswoman said today [Thursday]: “We strongly support the involvement of Sainsbury’s, working in partnership with the local NHS, to improve young women’s access to free emergency contraception.”
Sainsbury’s said in a statement: “We appreciate it’s a sensitive issue. However, in line with Government guidelines, five of our stores in areas where teenage pregnancy is a particular problem are involved in a local authority trial.”
Pro-life campaigners have criticised Sainsbury’s however, and called for a boycott of the supermarket.
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