Teenage pregnancy plan 'a success'

12 April 2012

A Government strategy to cut soaring rates of teenage pregnancy in England appears to be working, according to new research.

But experts doubt they are falling fast enough to meet the Government's goal of halving the conception rate in 10 years.

The teenage pregnancy rate in England is one of the highest in western Europe.

It peaked in 1998 when around 44 girls in every 1,000 aged 15 to 17 were getting pregnant.

To address the problem, the Government introduced the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy in 1999.

Its main elements included a media awareness campaign, improvements in sex education, better access to sexual health services, and help in training and employment.

The aim was to halve the teenage conception rate by the year 2010.

Now, researchers have reported early signs that the approach appeared to be having the desired effect - although not as rapidly as had been hoped.

The reduction in the number of pregnancies was greatest in deprived and rural areas, and among those with fewer educational qualifications.

The findings were published in The Lancet medical journal.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in