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Promulgator of Annoying Tidbits of Information
UK tops league of teenage pregnancy
by STEVE DOUGHTY, Daily Mail
Britain still has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Western Europe despite being one of the world's biggest users of contraceptives.
The figures, which emerged yesterday in a large- scale international study, appeared to explode claims by the sex education lobby that the UK's sky-high teenage birth rate is down to ignorance.
It showed that four out of five females between the ages of 15 and 44 in Britain - 80 per cent -use some form of contraception.
This compares to 76 per cent in the U.S., 75 per cent in France and 59 per cent in Japan.
Britain, nevertheless, has a sky-high level of teenage pregnancies, with 2.9 out of every 100 girls aged between 15 and 19 giving birth every year.
In France, where there is less contraceptive use, only 0.9 of every 100 girls aged 15 to 19 have babies, according to the survey.
The level in Germany is 1.1 per hundred girls while in Japan it is only 0.4 per hundred.
The findings suggest the huge growth in single parenthood in the UK in recent years - much of it a result of teenage pregnancy - has little to do with a lack of knowledge of sex and contraception among young people.
Recent research projects have contradicted the long-standing claim of the sex education lobby that more information and better distribution of contraceptives is needed, pointing away from ignorance as the cause of pregnancy among young girls.
Yesterday's report from the U.S. pressure group Population Action International surveyed health and reproduction statistics in developed countries and those in the Third World.
Alongside Britain the countries with the highest rate of contraceptive use are China, and, surprisingly for two Catholic nations, Spain and Italy.
The findings bear out research last year at Southampton University which found that teenage girls in Britain have a sophisticated knowledge of contraception.
For example, seven out of ten knew the morning-after pill was effective after more than 24 hours.
A report last month from Prince Charles's charity the Prince's Trust said teenage single girls on sink estates admire their peers who have given birth and often seek to copy their status and acquire the free flat they think having a baby usually brings.
The Family Planning Association insisted yesterday, however: 'Contraceptive use and teenage pregnancy are really two different issues and it doesn't help to lump them together.'
British rates of teenage pregnancy remain well behind those of the U.S. One in 20 girls there has babies each year compared to one in 34 in this country.
Last year more than 48,000 babies were born to teenage mothers in Britain.
They cost the taxpayer an estimated £125million in income support alone every year, apart from other costs such as assistance with rent and council tax.
The easy availability of contraception led to steep falls in the teenage birth rate across Europe in the early Seventies.
But while other countries continued to achieve dramatic falls Britain's has not changed since
According to a 1999 report by the Social Exclusion Unit the lack of education in sex and relationships was considered the main cause.
But the survey suggests the Prince's Trust may have been more accurate in its assumption that the attraction of financial benefits may be more to blame.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-28860/UK-tops-league-teenage-pregnancy.html#ixzz49tRmrqtv
by STEVE DOUGHTY, Daily Mail
Britain still has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Western Europe despite being one of the world's biggest users of contraceptives.
The figures, which emerged yesterday in a large- scale international study, appeared to explode claims by the sex education lobby that the UK's sky-high teenage birth rate is down to ignorance.
It showed that four out of five females between the ages of 15 and 44 in Britain - 80 per cent -use some form of contraception.
This compares to 76 per cent in the U.S., 75 per cent in France and 59 per cent in Japan.
Britain, nevertheless, has a sky-high level of teenage pregnancies, with 2.9 out of every 100 girls aged between 15 and 19 giving birth every year.
In France, where there is less contraceptive use, only 0.9 of every 100 girls aged 15 to 19 have babies, according to the survey.
The level in Germany is 1.1 per hundred girls while in Japan it is only 0.4 per hundred.
The findings suggest the huge growth in single parenthood in the UK in recent years - much of it a result of teenage pregnancy - has little to do with a lack of knowledge of sex and contraception among young people.
Recent research projects have contradicted the long-standing claim of the sex education lobby that more information and better distribution of contraceptives is needed, pointing away from ignorance as the cause of pregnancy among young girls.
Yesterday's report from the U.S. pressure group Population Action International surveyed health and reproduction statistics in developed countries and those in the Third World.
Alongside Britain the countries with the highest rate of contraceptive use are China, and, surprisingly for two Catholic nations, Spain and Italy.
The findings bear out research last year at Southampton University which found that teenage girls in Britain have a sophisticated knowledge of contraception.
For example, seven out of ten knew the morning-after pill was effective after more than 24 hours.
A report last month from Prince Charles's charity the Prince's Trust said teenage single girls on sink estates admire their peers who have given birth and often seek to copy their status and acquire the free flat they think having a baby usually brings.
The Family Planning Association insisted yesterday, however: 'Contraceptive use and teenage pregnancy are really two different issues and it doesn't help to lump them together.'
British rates of teenage pregnancy remain well behind those of the U.S. One in 20 girls there has babies each year compared to one in 34 in this country.
Last year more than 48,000 babies were born to teenage mothers in Britain.
They cost the taxpayer an estimated £125million in income support alone every year, apart from other costs such as assistance with rent and council tax.
The easy availability of contraception led to steep falls in the teenage birth rate across Europe in the early Seventies.
But while other countries continued to achieve dramatic falls Britain's has not changed since
According to a 1999 report by the Social Exclusion Unit the lack of education in sex and relationships was considered the main cause.
But the survey suggests the Prince's Trust may have been more accurate in its assumption that the attraction of financial benefits may be more to blame.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-28860/UK-tops-league-teenage-pregnancy.html#ixzz49tRmrqtv
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