The following article was written by Laura Chamberlain, news editor of The River, the student paper at Kingston University. The Kingston survey was also reported in the Daily Mail.

Other student newspapers may like to conduct similar surveys and raise awareness amongst students that the morning after pill can cause an early abortion.

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Many young women are using the morning-after pill instead of contraception, research suggests.

A survey of 500 university students found that nearly half had used the pill, and a third had used it instead of contraception.

Shockingly, a fifth of students had made the decision not to use contraception sober and so should have been making informed decisions. The study has caused concern that women need more information about what the drug actually does before they choose to use it.

The morning-after pill is inaccurately described as ‘emergency contraception’ when its purpose is in fact to abort an embryo that has been conceived.

Josephine Quintavalle, speaking on behalf of the ProLife Alliance, said: “The aspect of the survey that was most extraordinary was the high number of people in higher education who obviously haven’t had proper education about contraception. The whole Government project to bombard the public and especially young people with sex education, whatever the message, isn’t getting through to people.”

The study came as a new commercial for an over the counter morning-after pill is started being advertised on television for the first time, leading to fears that young women will use the drug without thinking about what it entails.

Quintavalle added: “We have a strong position on the morning-after pill which is that women take it because they think they’ve got pregnant and if you think you’ve got pregnant the purpose is clearly is to stop the pregnancy continuing. From the moment of conception a human embryo is created and we respect its absolute right to life.”

The research was carried out among students in their late teens and early 20s at Kingston University in South-West London.