- Teenage pregnancies have risen fastest in areas of the
country where the Government has specifically targeted resources to reduce
them, a new survey has revealed.
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- The report, to be published tomorrow, says that the explicit
sex education leaflets and free condoms provided to under-age girls by
the Government schemes have simply encouraged them to have sex.
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- The report, Sex Education or Indoctrination?, from the
Family Education Trust, an independent think-tank, claims that there is
a direct link between giving young people such sex education and a rise
in live births.
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- Official figures released last week showed that teenage
pregnancies in England rose year-on-year by more than 800, despite the
£15 million spent by the Government on strategies to reduce them.
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- There has also been a 62 per cent increase in the number
of cases of sexually transmitted diseases among young people aged 19 and
under, rising from 25,143 cases in 1997 to 40,821 in 2002.
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- The Government's Teenage Pregnancy Unit, established
in 1999, said that pregnancies among under-18s rose from 38,439 in 2001,
of which 46 per cent were aborted, to 39,286 in 2002. Abortion statistics
for 2002 are not yet available. The figures relate to pregnancies among
15- to 17-year-olds - no national statistics are kept on girls of 14 and
below.
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- Teenage pregnancy rates in Britain remain the highest
in western Europe. One in every 10 babies born in England is to a teenage
mother.
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- The Government's aim is to reduce teenage pregnancies
by 50 per cent by 2010, with an interim target of a 15 per cent reduction
by the end of this year.
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- The Family Education Trust report analyses areas where
the Teenage Pregnancy Unit have set up programmes to reduce the number
of girls falling pregnant. The unit's strategy involves more explicit sex
education in schools, often conducted by nurses without teachers present;
free condoms; and sending birthday cards when girls reach 14 asking them
to attend confidential health checks without their parents.
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- The trust discovered, however, that in most places the
strategy had backfired. According to the Government figures, one target
area, Cornwall, saw a 17 per cent rise in teenage pregnancies between 2001
and 2002 (from 306 to 359); Torbay rose 22 per cent (from 92 to 113); and
Haringey eight per cent (from 281 to 310). In York teenage pregnancies
rose by 34 per cent (from 93 to 125) over the same period and in Solihull
by 17 per cent (from 121 to 142).
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- In some targeted areas, there was a decrease. In Rotherham
pregnancies decreased by eight per cent (from 258 to 235) and in Bury by
three per cent (from 156 to 150).
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- The author of the report, Valerie Riches, a former social
worker, said: "The Government's teenage pregnancy strategy is based
on the premise that it is unrealistic to expect young people to abstain
from sex. They have embarked on a damage-limitation exercise dependent
on condom use and the use of the morning-after pill.
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- "The figures show, however, that it might be wiser
to support the majority in abstinence and demonstrate to the minority the
physical, emotional and psychological benefits of delaying sex until marriage."
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- She is deeply critical of the material used by the Teenage
Pregnancy Unit, especially of a guide for girls produced by the Family
Planning Association, a charity that is partly funded by the Government.
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- One guide, called "4 Girls", tells teenagers
how to obtain contraception, explains sexually transmitted diseases, and
gives reassuring advice about sex. Another leaflet tells young girls: "Contraceptive
advice and supplies are free to everyone. It doesn't matter how old you
are . . . there's no right age to have sex."
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- Mrs Riches said: "The Family Planning Association
sows confusion in a child's mind about right and wrong and presents only
one moral absolute - the use of condoms."
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- The report points out that the promotion of abstinence
among young people in America has lead to a drop in teenage pregnancies
by 10 per cent.
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- Anne Weyman, the chief executive of the FPA, defended
her charity's advice. She said: "Good sex and relationships education
is most effective as a multi-faceted approach, from within home, school
and healthcare settings.
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- "Studies have shown that abstinence education doesn't
work, it makes young people more vulnerable, because they don't have the
knowledge to protect themselves against pregnancy or sexually transmitted
infections."
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- A spokesman for Cathy Hamlyn, the head of the Teenage
Pregnancy Unit, part of the Department for Education and Skills, said:
"The teenage pregnancy strategy is the first cross-government strategy
to tackle our unacceptably high rates of teenage pregnancy.
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- "The strategy helps people to resist pressure to
have early sex through improved sex and relationship education and supporting
parents in talking to children about these issues."
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
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