THE Government has made a U-turn on its advice on contraceptive pills, four years after health warnings caused panic and led to an estimated 30,000 abortions.
Jeremy Metters, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, said yesterday the abortions were "regretted". The Government released new guidelines reversing the 1995 safety alert when it warned women and GPs that the leading "third generation" brand of pills were so risky they should not be taken unless absolutely necessary.
The alarm affected about two million women, half of all British women taking oral contraceptives. Twelve per cent immediately stopped taking the Pill and abortions, which had been on the decline, rose by 9 per cent that year and are continuing to rise.
Medical experts and manufacturers blamed the Government for the sensational health scare which was based on evidence that had yet to be published. The research had found that women taking third generation pills, which contain the progestogens called desogestel or gestodene,were about twice as likely as those on other pills to have blood clots in their legs, but the risk was still very small - 25 women in 100,000.
Those statistics were called into doubt and after appeals from the drug manufacturers the Committee of Safety on Medicines (CSM) reconsidered. Dr Metters said that the risks remained the same as in 1995 but they were very small and as long as women were informed of them they could be prescribed the third generation pills as their first choice.
"Of course I regret unnecessary abortions. But the CSM gave the advice they thought was right at the time. It was important that women should be told exactly what the risks were. If we had sat on the data there would have been a national outcry."