PARENTS and pro-life campaigners have blasted plans to extend the number of county high schools that prescribe the morning after pill to underage pupils without their parents' knowledge.

The move was made as part of the county's Teenage Pregnancy and Parenting Strategy and will see more special school nurses prescribing the emergency contraceptive.

Teenager pregnancy co-ordinator for Worcestershire, Jenny Kimberlee, who is spearheading the initiative, said girls as young as 11 could be prescribed the drug if the nurse was satisfied they were "consenting" to the decision.

Social services, police and parents would only become involved if the girl had become pregnant in exceptional circumstances - such as rape, she added.

Jonathan Pearsall, secondary school parent governor representative for Worcestershire, condemned the move.

"Parents should be entirely responsible until the child, and that's the operative word here, child, comes to an age when they can appreciate the gravity of what emergency contraceptive pills can do," he said.

Mary Cairns, chairwoman of Worcester LIFE, a pro-life campaign group, added: "We deplore the fact that girls would be prescribed the pill without their parents' knowledge.

"If a child had their appendix removed then the parent would know, and that should be the same with an abortion, and we regard taking the morning after pill as an early abortion.

"An 11-year-old isn't old enough to make an informed decision without their parents' involvement, neither is any schoolgirl."

She said she feared the decision would lead to more girls having underage or unprotected sex, a rise in sexually transmitted diseases and would promote promiscuity.

"It's giving out the wrong message," she said. "It's way too easy to take a pill afterwards and say 'oh, it will be all right'."

But Ms Kimberlee said everyone had a right to receive advice in private, and the real issue was about providing pupils with the opportunity to discuss their worries.

"All of us need some secrets from our parents - we don't share everything with them," she added.

She said three schools in Worcestershire already provide the service, and a further five were now being considered.

She hoped the extension of the initiative would particularly benefit children in rural areas who may not have easy access to a GP or sexual health clinic, or pupils in deprived urban areas who could not afford to travel to their doctor.

The issue of contraceptive advice hit the headlines earlier this month after a Nottinghamshire mother discovered a school health worker had arranged a termination for her pregnant 14-year-old daughter without her knowledge.