UNDOUBTEDLY, there are real reasons for concern over the levels of teenage pregnancy in East Lancashire -- above all when the rate in our region is nearly 50 per cent higher than the national average.

Even so, the scheme begun at a Rossendale comprehensive school to issue free 'morning-after' pills and sex counselling to pupils -- believed to be the first in the country to do -- is bound to be hugely controversial.

Certainly, the problem of unwanted teenage pregnancies is considerable and indisputable -- with the conception rate of 67.5 per 1,000 for under-18s in the Burnley area being not only far higher than the national level of 45.3, but also rising. Nor can the social and economic problems that stem from children being raised in deprived single-parent homes be discounted.

But confronting the situation in the way being tried at Fearns High School raises moral concerns that many will feel have more validity than the arguments in favour of this approach.

To begin with, there is the fundamental question of whether this attempt to reduce teenage pregnancies only serves to encourage more teenage sex . And this is all the more relevant in this case -- when, somewhat different from the scheme launched elsewhere in East Lancashire last year to give away thousands of condoms to teenagers, it is a response to sex that has already taken place.

No matter how well-meaning or practical efforts like this are, can they be divorced from the moral questions they inspire -- such as whether they promote promiscuity and diminish responsibility, whether they assist illegal under-age sex and whether it is right that parents may be excluded from giving their consent or refusal?

Certainly, such concerns seemed ignored by this scheme -- when perhaps examination of how other countries with much lower teenage pregnancy rates deal with the issue without resorting to methods like this. Firm proof of the effectiveness of this controversial East Lancashire experiment is needed before it goes on to be the norm here or elsewhere.