26 Aug '10 19:58>
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/7964538/A-sexual-disaster-for-teenagers-and-society.html
A sexual disaster for teenagers and society
A welfare system that rewards lone motherhood is perverse and wrong-headed.
By Telegraph View
Published: 6:39PM BST 25 Aug 2010
The North East had the highest under-18 conception rate at 49 per 1,000 girls aged 15 to 17 Photo: PA
The last government spent £300 million on its Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, with the declared aim of halving pregnancies among under-18s by this year. According to the Office for National Statistics, the pregnancy rate among teenagers aged 15 to 17 when Labour came to power was 45 conceptions per 1,000; a decade on, it had barely changed. Indeed, figures published yesterday indicate that the rate has recently risen sharply, particularly among those under 16. Along with statistics from the Health Protection Agency, which recorded almost half a million new cases of sexually transmitted diseases in 2009, mostly among the young, the data confirm this country’s unassailable position as Europe’s trailblazer in sexual irresponsibility.
This is a failure of policy on an epic scale, the result of a 13-year social experiment that has proved an unmitigated disaster. Labour adopted the most simplistic of approaches, channelling all its energies and money into sex education programmes of dubious worth, while making contraception freely available – frequently without the knowledge of parents – to girls who were often under the age of consent. Ministers and officials reacted with horror to any suggestion that moral issues might come into play, while the notion of abstinence campaigns, widely deployed in the US, was greeted with contempt. At the same time, the policy of making cheap alcohol easily available round the clock – another Labour triumph – was tailor-made to encourage dissolute behaviour.
...
A sexual disaster for teenagers and society
A welfare system that rewards lone motherhood is perverse and wrong-headed.
By Telegraph View
Published: 6:39PM BST 25 Aug 2010
The North East had the highest under-18 conception rate at 49 per 1,000 girls aged 15 to 17 Photo: PA
The last government spent £300 million on its Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, with the declared aim of halving pregnancies among under-18s by this year. According to the Office for National Statistics, the pregnancy rate among teenagers aged 15 to 17 when Labour came to power was 45 conceptions per 1,000; a decade on, it had barely changed. Indeed, figures published yesterday indicate that the rate has recently risen sharply, particularly among those under 16. Along with statistics from the Health Protection Agency, which recorded almost half a million new cases of sexually transmitted diseases in 2009, mostly among the young, the data confirm this country’s unassailable position as Europe’s trailblazer in sexual irresponsibility.
This is a failure of policy on an epic scale, the result of a 13-year social experiment that has proved an unmitigated disaster. Labour adopted the most simplistic of approaches, channelling all its energies and money into sex education programmes of dubious worth, while making contraception freely available – frequently without the knowledge of parents – to girls who were often under the age of consent. Ministers and officials reacted with horror to any suggestion that moral issues might come into play, while the notion of abstinence campaigns, widely deployed in the US, was greeted with contempt. At the same time, the policy of making cheap alcohol easily available round the clock – another Labour triumph – was tailor-made to encourage dissolute behaviour.
...