This week's programme in the series on Man and Science today.

"Didn't you realise that this pregnancy might be the consequence if you didn't use contraceptives?" "Oh yes, I did, but as it hadn't happened to me before, I didn't worry about it".
This was the attitude of a young girl attending a clinic for an abortion. At the moment legal abortions in the UK are being performed at the rate of over 90,000 a year and it is considered that the number is likely to rise. But why are so many people not prepared to use contraceptives? Are the contraceptives themselves at fault or is it part of a deep-rooted attitude to sex?
This urgent need for effective contraception is heightened by new techniques which may blur the distinction between contraception and abortion. A drug is now being tested which makes it possible for a woman to procure her own abortion in the first few weeks of pregnancy.
Tonight's Horizon looks at the whole range of contraceptives in an attempt to assess their relative values.

(Colour)