Female contraceptive aimed at cutting abortion rates "Strange tmes": Dr John Aitken. Photo: Natalie Grono A radical female contraception that simultaneously paralyses sperm and protects from sexually transmitted diseases aims to stem abortion rates in Australia among the next generation of young women. The compound, which may eventually take the form of a sponge or vaginal ring to be inserted two or three days before sexual intercourse, is unique in that it is activated only on contact with semen, said University of Newcastle professor John Aitken said. So far Professor Aitken has been able to prove that the compound works in a test tube and has no toxic effects. He has shown that it successfully stops the transmission of chlamydia, the most prevalent sexually transmitted disease in Australia, and he has begun safety trials using laboratory rats. Like the Sleeping Beauty, it [the contraceptive] only becomes woken at the moment of insemination. Our motivation is to try and reduce the amount of abortions, which are predominantly in under-19s," he said. Professor Aitken said that a fifth of pregnancies in Australia are aborted, resulting in about 70,000 terminations a year. There was an "urgent need" to develop better contraceptive methods, he said. I regard abortion as not a moral failure but a contraception failure. We just don't have the right methods to empower women to control their fertility. The invention is groundbreaking in that the compound does not kill sperm but targets what enables it to swim, and is therefore much safer for women. If you go to a chemist now and buy a spermicide, what you are buying is a detergent that was invented in the 1940s. It's called Nonoxynol-9. It's a very nasty substance and women who use Nonoxynol-9, especially commercial sex workers who use Nonoxynol-9 a lot, are more prone to getting HIV, not less prone, because of the damage the stuff does to their reproductive tract. Professor Aitken's research is focusing on other aspects of reproduction, including the little understood problem of male infertility. On Sunday, Professor Aitken addressed "Making Babies in the 21st Century," a public forum in Sydney. "We live in strange times of having this strange dichotomy between people who are desperate to have pregnancies and those who are aborting their pregnancies," he said. We need to understand this headlong rush into ART [assisted reproductive technology] is going to have a long-term impact on the health and well-being of future generations. Any woman who is going to put off having babies until after they're 35 in the hope that IVF will rescue them are going to be drinking from the well of disappointment.