PARENTS whose children go to St Gregory the Great Catholic School have criticised plans to give pupils access to the morning-after pill by text message.

Despite the Catholic Church’s staunch anti-contraception and anti-abortion stance, St Gregory’s in East Oxford has been put on a list of six schools being considered for a pilot scheme where pupils could text a nurse for emergency contraception.

Kevin Connelly, 46, from Sandford, who has an 11-year-old son at the school, said: “You would think the school wouldn’t even be considered for this without speaking to the parents first, given the religion of the school.

“Doing something like this is giving children a free hand and saying ‘don’t worry what you do we’ll be here to pick up the pieces’.”

Johnny Joyce, 39, a Catholic father-of-six, who has three children at the school, said: “This is scandalous. Being a strong Catholic I’m extremely opposed to this.

“This is a Catholic school – I can’t believe they are going to accept the use of the morning-after pill there.

“It’s a horrible feeling to think that children can go behind their parents’ back and get the morning-after pill.”

Mr Joyce, who lives at Redbridge Hollow travellers’ site, added: “I have got three daughters and I would like to think God willing they won’t have sex until they get married.

“Every schoolgirl should be protected from a plan like this.”

Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust and Oxfordshire County Council are considering allowing girls as young as 11 to text requests for the pill, after a jump of almost 10 per cent in the number of girls aged 18 and under getting pregnant. The number went up from 320 in 2006 to 350 in 2007.

Talks about the text service have yet to take place with governors and headmasters at the six schools being considered for the scheme.

They are St Gregory the Great, Cheney, The Oxford Academy Oxford School, The North Oxfordshire Academy in Banbury and Banbury School.

The PCT said because the service would be provided outside school hours, the plans fell outside schools’ governance.

Mohammed Latif, 45, of Milton Road, East Oxford, who has a son at the school said: “I don't think it’s morally right.

"It gives children the freedom to take part in sexual activity because they know they are safe to do so. The idea should be to deter them from doing this kind of activity.”

A 38-year-old woman who has a 15-year-old daughter at the school voiced support for the plans.

The woman, who refused to be named, said: “I know it is a Catholic school but does that mean none of the teenage children there will get pregnant?”

cwalker@oxfordmail.co.uk