Teenage pregnancy strategy continues to be massive failure, says SPUC

Teenage pregnancy strategy continues to be massive failure, says SPUC London, - Contrary to government claims, teenage pregnancy statistics released today prove that the government's teenage pregnancy strategy has been a massive failure, says the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC).

Anthony Ozimic, SPUC political secretary, commented: "The rate of recorded pregnancies in 2006 fell by no more than two percent among under 18s and no more than one percent among under 16s. Although the number of recorded pregnancies in the under-18s dropped slightly to 39,003, this is barely any change on the 1999 level, when the teenage pregnancy strategy was launched, when the figure was 39,243. "The government claim of a 13 percent fall in teenage pregnancies is an abuse of the figures, since this uses the high point of 1998 as the baseline, before its strategy began in 1999. In fact, the number of teenage pregnancies had already started falling before the strategy began and the rate of decrease started to slow once the strategy began to be implemented on the ground. The government is nowhere near meeting its target of a 50% reduction in teenage pregnancies by 2010. The strategy has failed and should now be abandoned. "Not only has the strategy failed, it has been at the expense of unborn children killed by abortion and abortion-inducing birth control drugs and devices. It has been at the expense of removing children from their parents' protection through the arranging of secret abortions without parental knowledge or consent. And it has been at the expense of exposing children to an adult culture of promiscuity."