Tesco supermarkets, Great Britain's largest supermarket chain, announced on Saturday that it is dispensing emergency contraception free of charge to women under the age of 20 in two towns in western England as part of a pilot project aimed at reducing teen pregnancies, the New York Times reports. Great Britain, in which EC has been available without a prescription since last year, has the highest teen pregnancy rate in Western Europe with 95,000 teen pregnancies recorded in 2000. The government has "pledged to halve that number" by the end of the decade and has approved non-prescription sales of EC, which can prevent pregnancy when taken within 72 hours of intercourse, as part of that effort. However, the Tesco initiative, which does not require proof of age and is coordinated by the North Somerset Teenage Pregnancy Group, has drawn criticism from antiabortion groups that claim it will increase sexual risk-taking (Hoge, New York Times, 3/18). "We all want to prevent teenage pregnancies -- but this is giving the green light to teenage sex. We need to give them the message they need, which is that sex is precious and not just a one-night fling," Nuala Scarisbrick of the antiabortion group Life said, adding that she was "astonished that a family company like Tesco would seek to enter this very sensitive area." Simon Bilous of the North Somerset Teenage Pregnancy Group said that the Tesco initiative "is a small part of a range of initiatives we have developed to tackle teenage pregnancy. All our work is in the context of encouraging young people to say no if they do not want to have sex and only to engage in sexual activity if they feel ready for it." However, teens are having sex, he noted, adding that studies of other countries in western Europe demonstrate that "liberal approaches" to sexual issues help prevent teen pregnancies (BBC News, 3/16). Antiabortion groups in the United Kingdom are trying to block all sales of EC, contending that the pills are unsafe and a form of abortion. The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children has been granted a judicial review of its lawsuit that contends that EC is an abortifacient and should be outlawed under an 1861 law that prevents the sale of any "poison or other noxious thing" intended to terminate a pregnancy. Family planning advocates say a ruling that EC is an abortifacient could "call into question the legality" of all birth control pills and other contraceptive devices that can prevent implantation of a fertilized egg (New York Times, 3/18).