Remember all those studies and pamphlets about the “effectiveness” of the contraceptive pill? Ninety-eight per cent for “perfect use” was it? Well, you can forget all that, according to one of the leading experts on contraception. Professor James Trussell of Princeton University was speaking at the conference of one of Britain’s top birth control organisations, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, last month when he said straight out that the pill is useless as a general strategy for preventing pregnancy. “The pill is an outdated method because it does not work well enough. It is very difficult for ordinary women to take a pill every single day.”

And that is not all. The morning after pill, which is being promoted everywhere as the answer for women who are careless about “protection”, also gets the thumbs down from Prof Trussell. “It has not reduced unintended pregnancies in America or anywhere else that has introduced it. There is so much unprotected sex you would have to use so much emergency contraception to make a dent…” he said. “It is not a magic bullet.”

So what should the British -- or any nation -- do to reduce “unintended” pregnancies? Stop playing around with sex and treat it with the respect it demands? Don’t be silly! The real answer, according to Trussell, is long-acting contraceptive methods -- injectables and implants. “The beauty of the implant or the IUD is that you can forget about them.” If “beauty” is the right word for methods which reduce humans to the level of animals, without even a modicum of self control. ~ The Telegraph (UK), June 25