Scottish women to be urged to ditch the pill

London, Nov 9 : Under a revolutionary change to family planning aimed at reducing the rate of unwanted pregnancies, Scottish women will be advised to ditch the contraceptive pill in favour of longer-lasting and more reliable implants and injections.

Scottish women, who currently use the pill, will be urged to consider switching to "long-acting reversible" methods that last from three months to five years.

Presently, only a tiny minority of Scottish women of child-bearing age use implants and injections.

Health minister Shona Robison will launch the strategy next spring in order to reduce the increasing number of unwanted pregnancies which lead to more than 1,000 abortions a month.

Ministers will spend about 270,000 pounds a year publicising the new strategy, which has been welcomed by many doctors and sexual health specialists.

However, the campaign has also sparked controversy with experts warning it could exacerbate fertility problems among older women wanting to start families because normal fertility can take five or more months to return after some long-term contraceptives stop working.

"The campaign will feature all types of long-lasting, reversible contraception - injections, coil and implants. The aim will be to reduce unintended pregnancies, because of the low failure rate and high reliability rates of these methods," Scotsman quoted a Scottish Government spokeswoman, as saying.

ANI