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Child Neglect
UK News

Christian pregnancy counsellors welcome teen pregnancy dip

New figures from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine reveal the country's teenage conception rate has fallen to its lowest level since the 1970s.

Published in The Lancet, the statistics suggest the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy introduced by the then-Labour government in 1999 has been having a positive impact.

The CrossWay Pregnancy Crisis Centre in Twickenham, south-west London, has hailed the research as "good news" but expressed concern too many Christian schools are not providing sex and relationships education classes.

Dave Thompson/PA Wire

Centre Director, Karen Pitchford, told Premier it is important even young children are helped to make sensible choices about sex and their bodies.

Speaking about parties where alcohol might be involved as one example, Karen said: "You can't protect your children from these situations. They are going to be out in the world.

"They are going to be having to make these decision, so I think it's important that they get information not just from their parents but from other people.

"A lot of what we do is about self-esteem and helping people not give into peer pressure but to make decisions that they want to make [and] actually looking more at having good relationships.

"[When] we teach maths, we start at the bottom and then work gradually up to more complicated maths. It's the same with sex education, really. It's about age-appropriate information ...people learning about life and how to make good choices."

The findings show the rate of pregnancies among under 18's across England peaked in 1998 and fall at a moderate pace until 2006, before a more steep decline.

Lead-researcher Professor Kaye Wellings said: "As young people globally spend longer in education and settle with a partner later, we're now seeing a near universal trend towards fewer early pregnancies.

"But the more striking decline in under-18 maternities in England compared with other European countries, and its close link with government investment in reducing teenage pregnancy rates, appears to reflect the intensive and sustained efforts of the strategy to address the problem by changing social norms and increasing access to education and reliable contraception."

You can click here to hear Karen Pitchford from the CrossWay Pregnancy Crisis Centre in Twickenham speaking with Premier's Aaron James here.

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