To think that underage girls should need their parents permission to get contraception

[happypiggywiggy]

I think it's crazy that girls under 16 can show up at a family planning clinic or their GP alone and ask to be put on contraception without their parents permission. I'm pretty sure it hasn't always been that way and you needed your parents permission at one point.

My DD is only 10 but it scares me that in just four or five years she will be able to go on the pill without telling me or needing my permission.

I just think that if my teenage DD is going to be using something hormonal like the pill or implant or injection then I'd want to know so I can keep an eye on her and also be on the look out for any bad side effects she may have. Some women have a terrible time with hormonal contraception and I just think that when you're young having someone else keep an eye on you is a good idea iyswim.

I guess because certainly in the case of the pill, it can be used for non-contraceptive purposes such as acne and period pain control?

I'd prefer my girls to be able to access these things freely if they need to tbh.

There was a time when grown women had to get their husbands permission to take the pill.

Be thankful that we don't live in those times anymore.

YABU - I know you feel close to your daughter but there are many, many teens who need contraception but could not even begin to discuss the topic with their parents/guardians. It's more important that they can access them than risk teenage pregnancy

I went on the pill at 15 because of awful periods. My mum only found out when I was 17 and moved out (left some behind by mistake) and she viewed it as me being a slag, only girls who were planning to shag around took the pill, bla bla bla. I could never have discussed it with her. In my group there seemed to be more girls who couldn't discuss it than who could.

Just google gillick competence and it will tell you all you need to know.

YABU. i would rather my DD at 15 went and got contraception than took the risk of unwanted pregnancy.
I could think of nothing worse at 15 than having to let my mother know I was considering a sex life. She would never discuss her sex life with me, why would I be expected to discuss mine with her.. absolutely cringeworthy

Edith yes they do. I sat in on a gillick competence interview with my dd when she was 14 when she needed the morning after pill. They asked how old the boy was & also that she had been a willing partner. There were other questions too, you can probably google them?

Omg yabvu. Stop being such a control freak!!!

Edith I can't speak for all HCPs but my colleagues and I always check the nature of the intended/actual sexual relationship. This falls under the Safeguarding procedures we are required to follow.

Gillick competency isn't really a phrase used now - we tend to follow the Fraser Guidelines which state contraception can be provided without parental consent when:

? The young person understands the professional’s advice.
? The young person cannot be persuaded to inform their parents.
? The young person is likely to begin, or to continue having, sexual intercourse with or without contraceptive treatment.
? Unless the young person receives contraceptive treatment, their physical or mental health, or both, are likely to suffer.
? The young person’s best interests require them to receive contraceptive advice or treatment with or without
parental consent.

Doctors aren't the police. They are there to treat patients - not enforce the law.

Actually GPs do look out for inappropriate relationships and will report to social services if there are concerns about coercion etc. Withholding access to contraception won't stop girls being coerced, it will just mean that they have to deal with unwanted pregnancy as well. Pregnancy is the commonest time for physical abuse to start in a relationship so increases girls' risk of violence, not to mention the psychological consequences of being pregnant through a coercive relationship.

I think it's a slippery slope and we shouldn't be encouraging young people to have sex so early.

There is no evidence whatsoever that access to contraception encourages young people to have sex earlier. Do you really think that teenagers, jacked up to the eyeballs with hormones, won't shag, just because they don't have contraception?

Can I just ask how long girls have been allowed to access contraception without parental permission for?

I'm 45, I first accessed contraception at 14 without my parent's permission or knowledge. I got the morning after a pill and a bag full of nasty thick condoms so that would have been about 1984. It didn't seem like an unusual thing for me to do but I was a very confident teenager. I quickly moved on to the pill with no problem.

Victoria Gillick attempted her ridiculous court case when I was 15. Thankfully by then my mum knew that I was on the pill because I had to take her to the ruddy family planning clinic appointment with me whilst that was going on through the courts I was very lucky that I had liberal parents, friends of mine weren't so lucky.

I believe that VG's daughter became a single parent at a very young age.

I remember my mum telling me that she had to prove she had just got married to get the pill - that was the early '60s.

it appears to me that 'Gillick competence' is actually the ability to do exactly what Victoria Gillick DIDN'T want - which I find strangely satisfactory.

I also found it interesting that a woman with ten children felt qualified to talk about contraception. In 'Cheaper by The Dozen' (admittedly somewhat fictionalised) mother-of-twelve Lilian Gilbreth was allegedly asked to become involved in a family planning campaign, and after assembling her brood said that she probably wasn't the best person!

the eventual defeat of Gillick has saved so many from unwanted pregnancies.

I took my Dd to the docs around that age. I was preggers at 17 and I didn't want that life for her. Had she been savvy and confident to go on her own I would have been ever so proud. Btw have 2 son's and took both to do with their gfs to discuss contraception. I waited in the car obvs

"Can I just ask how long girls have been allowed to access contraception without parental permission for?"

The House of Lords decision that finally established the principle was in 1985. But that whole case arose out of the fact that in 1980 doctors were already prescribing contraception without parental permission (Mrs Gillick was trying to stop them doing so).

So, at least thirty-four years in practise, at least in some parts of the country. Twenty-nine years as a matter of settled law.

I'm I'm in two minds about this I can understand why for some its best kept private and I imagine a lot of teenagers wouldn't want their parents to know so they me avoid taking care of their contraception needs.
But at the same time it is illegal for someone under 16 to be having sex if the parents were informed they are in a better postiton that a GP or nurse to be aware if their teenage was being exploited.

16yr old went for the pill recently for painful periods anyway that is besides the point she said the gp asked lots of questions spoke about the implications of unprotected sex condoms etc etc , so they are not just throw ing the pill at them and besides if a 15yr old is having sex and mature enough to go to a clinic or gp then more power to her why should a parent know id much rather that than a 15yr old with a baby

Why am i not surprised to find mr gillick is a ukip member

OP, out of intrest, whats your view on abortion?

If 14 and 15 year olds are going to be having sex (which, let's face it, they are), it's far better that they're doing it with contraception. Bodily autonomy is important at that age; already you feel you lack control with puberty and periods starting - to feel that your parents or the state owns your body and your right to contraception would be horrendous.

Some of you seem to lead extremely sheltered lives and assume that all teenagers have a close, trusting relationship with parents who will take a rational, benign approach to their child's sexuality. Lots of teens don't have that relationship with their parents. In some cases, the person coercing the teen into a sexual relationship will be the parent

I never understand why people get so het up about this issue. If you think you've got fantastic relationships with your DDs, then they'll all tell you when they're thinking about contraception, won't they? So what's your problem? Other teenagers who are not so lucky with their parents deserve their privacy and the right to make decisions about their bodies.

Moomin! I found you

If you have a sec could you have a look at this thread please? :)
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/relationships/2205714-Made-a-fake-account-to-ask-about-baby

Sorry for hijack

I will have condoms in a bowl for my boys soon. My eldest is 15 but not sexually active and I know this for a fact due to various reasons. I want them to have free access to condoms incase they feel too embarrassed to get them themselves. Will do the same for the girls when they are older.

I think it's very easy to see it from the happy rose coloured glasses POV of a mum who is supportive of her daughter.

Do you really think that a 15 year old who is having a horrific time with her periods should be unable to have suitable medication (i.e. the pill) if her mum (or dad) believes contraception is evil? Because that's a consequence of your suggestion.

Pretty sure my daughter would not now be at uni if I had refused to allow her to go on the pill. Nothing to do with her being sexually active. She was wildly hormonal and wretchedly unhappy for two weeks out of every four.

My dd is 15. I would much rather she used contraception and knew about safe sex and practised it, than she fell pregnant or got some ghastly thing and had to attend a GUM clinic.

The Gillick thing happened when I was still youthful () and I and my friends were all breathing sighs of relief that we weren't going to have to talk to parents about it. Whether we all needed contraception or not - and most of us didn't - we were jolly glad the option was there. Most of us had parents who would have refused. We also had a GP who would have refused on religious grounds to prescribe it (his own daughter was forced to have her born-out-wedlock baby adopted against her will, by her vile dad).

There is no way at all I want to see those days come back.

YABU OP.

I too have a good relationship with my DD (16) and I she can talk to me and will talk to me when the time comes for contraception. I also have a good relationship with a lot of her friends and I can tell you that I that there is only my DD and two others out of her group of friends, (which numbers about 20), who are not already having or have had sex (mostly underage). I find this quite sad, but that's another thread! I know the parents of some of these girls know and others don't know that their daughters are having sex. I believe all of them are using contraception (thankfully!).

I genuinely do believe that my daughter can and will talk to me but I can never be certain of that and I would want to know that if she couldn't speak to me, that there would be someone she could talk to and who better than a health professional? I feel that way now she is 16 but felt the same way before she reached that magic number. I also know that there are girls and boys out there who cannot talk to their parents, for whatever reason.

My desire/right as a parent to know my daughter has been prescribed contraception does not outweigh her right to protect herself.