The charity LIFE is not surprised at the fact that the teenage pregnancy rates in the UK have resumed their grim upward progress. The government’s teenage pregnancy strategy, based on the feeble and inadequate “condoms and consent” approach, has failed.
Michaela Aston, spokesperson for the charity, said, "This is a wake-up call for a radical change of direction. For too long the government has pursued a counter-productive sex education which is making the problem worse by normalising teenage sex and undermining parents’ attempts to communicate values to their children. Since sexual activity is what causes pregnancy surely the obvious answer is to find ways to discourage teenagers from having sex.
It is also irresponsible to lull teenagers into a false sense of security about condoms. Condoms are not a magic bullet. They are far from failsafe. Some estimates of condom failure rates have placed the figure as high as 15% (that, is a 1in 6), and, as any health professional will confirm, teenagers are very poor at using condoms correctly. Recent figures from the Teenage Pregnancy Unit show that half of all young people aged 16-29 requesting emergency contraception had experienced a condom failure.
Real and lasting change will only come when we embrace a holistic view of sex education. This means talking about more than just different types of contraception, or about how to make sure you have “fun”. It means talking seriously about love, commitment and faithfulness, about making mature decisions and living with the consequences. It means telling the truth about the scale of the STI epidemic in this country (including the limitations of condoms in preventing the transmission of certain STIs) and the increasing sexualisation of our young which is adding to their insecurities and making it hard for them to say no. In our experience learning how to say no is one of the things that teenagers most want."
LIFE press release on teenage pregnancy 260209.pdf