KEY POINTS:
The holidays are no excuse for taking unnecessary risks with sex, says Family Planning.
"And it's not just young people we want to heed the message - it seems a combination of summer, holidays, sun and alcohol can result in people of all ages behaving in a manner they wouldn't usually consider," said chief executive Jackie Edmond.
Family Planning has been running a poster campaign entitled, 'Do you wrap all your gifts? - use condoms and lube this festive season'.
Ms Edmond said: "The campaign is not about encouraging sexual activity - it's about getting people to recognise the risks of unprotected or unplanned sexual activity.
"Sexually transmissible infections, including HIV, and unplanned pregnancy can change people's lives forever.
"We're still encouraging young people to delay having sex as long as they can, but we know that young people don't make as good decisions as they would do normally when they're drunk.
"One of our worries is the effects of alcohol, particularly on young women."
Ms Edmond encourages young women, when hitting the town, to go out with a group of mates.
"So when you do make some odd decisions if you've been drinking, your mates will know that that's not your normal sort of thing and they might actually help dissuade you from doing things and keep you safe," Ms Edmond said.
But it applies to the older set as well. She said the organisation is preparing a new information pack for people in their 30s and 40s.
"They're people who've been in long term relationships for many years, have come out of relationships and are back on the dating scene and are, really, a bit out of touch with how to look after themselves.
"We've got anecdotal evidence from people coming through the clinics that they just haven't got a lot of good information."
Ms Edmond said there was concern around the number of unplanned pregnancies and abortions. In 2006, there were 17,930 abortions, compared with 17,530 in 2005 and 18,510 in 2003.
Women aged 20-24 years had the highest abortion rate with 37 abortions per 1,000 women.
Abortion statistics for 2007 have not been released yet.
