If there's one thing that the Daily Mail actively hates (and let's face it, there are thousands: working mothers, single women, people who flagrantly enjoy themselves ...) contraception being made available to teenagers definitely figures high up on the list. The subject regularly features negatively on their pages, and, last Friday, it made the front page. Apparently, overall use of emergency contraception has doubled in the past six years, while teenage pregnancy rates have risen by 12%. Ergo, reports the Mail, the government's decision to make the morning-after pill available to teenagers has, officially, been "a dramatic failure".

Now, don't get me wrong - I realise there are potential issues with the pills, and that they certainly shouldn't be relied on as a sole form of protection. By completely renouncing it, though, we have once again emphasised for teenagers the general, and very problematic, impression that contraception itself is a dodgy concept.

Before I carry on I should declare a personal interest: I have always been a huge fan. In fact, I am such a big fan that over the past 10 years I must have used it at least six or seven times - despite the fact that it costs a rather whopping £26. Before you cast aspersions, this isn't because I'm stupid or irresponsible or missed the lesson back in 1992 where we giggled endlessly while rolling condoms on to cucumbers. It is partly because I have experienced a few split condoms, but also because I see emergency contraception as a really good back-up, a second condom if you will, in the early stages of a relationship. (That hallowed period when you like someone enough to sleep with them, but possibly not enough to fuse your genetic material with theirs for all eternity). And it helps that - despite widespread rumours - it doesn't actually have any negative effects on health or fertility.

So why has the morning-after pill always been so hated by conservative folk? It's not because of problems with its efficacy, but because they see it as encouraging women (yes, it's shocking!) to have sex - just like all that other evil contraception out there. The fact that women will have sex anyway seems lost on them.

And while the widespread, regular demonisation of contraception probably doesn't have much effect on women once they reach their 20s, for teenagers it must be hugely off-putting. On the one hand, it makes them feel (quite rightly) that there is a strong chance of being harshly judged if they seek out contraception, on the other, they are constantly fed the message that it doesn't prevent pregnancy anyway. Is it any wonder they're still fumbling in the dark?