The Government is not taking sex education seriously enough, despite the fact that recent research indicated that 8% of women having sex are under the age of 15, Fine Gael’s health spokesperson, Dr Liam Twomey, has claimed.

According to Dr Twomey, young people also need to be educated more on the link between alcohol unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

“Research carried out by the Irish Medical Journal revealed that ‘women presenting for emergency contraception and who admitted they were drunk, were four times more likely to have used emergency contraception at least twice before’. Alcohol would appear to be putting Irish women at risk of both pregnancy and STIs, as women who were drunk were eight times more likely to be having casual sex”, explained Dr Twomey.

With the incidence of the STI, chlamydia, increasing tenfold between 1995 and 2004, there is ’serious need’ for improved sex education, as well as a chlamydia screening programme, he said.

“All teenagers at school level need comprehensive sex education. They need to be aware of the how their bodies work, their reproductive organs, the risk of pregnancies and STIs, emergency contraception and the need for regular check-ups with their doctor”, he added.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 11th, 2006 at 10:11 pm and is filed under Health Care. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.