[Omah]

MANY teenage mothers are either ignorant or have been grossly misinformed about sex - the rest are just stupid .....

None of them should receive help from the state and the fathers (if old enough!) should be prosecuted .....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage...United_Kingdom

Teenage pregnancy in the United Kingdom is a long-standing social phenomenon. The only other western country with comparable teenage pregnancy rates is the United States.

Comparative pregnancy rate

The United Kingdom currently has the highest teenage birth rate in Western Europe. Over the last fifty years the proportion of teenagers and in particular those under the age of 16 who have experienced sexual intercourse has increased dramatically. The 2001 survey of sexual attitudes and lifestyles revealed that over 90% of teenagers had experience of sexual intercourse and around a quarter had before the age of 16. Though with the increase in the proportion having intercourse, there has also been an increase in the knowledge and use of contraception, through sex education and the upsurge in family planning clinics.

Change in pregnancy rate over time

Births to teenagers increased during the 1960s and peaked in 1971 at 50.6 per thousand of the population. Since 1971 they have gradually fallen to their lowest level since the mid Fifties. The proportion occurring outside marriage has increased from around one in six in the 1950s to nine in every ten in 2006. Teenage abortion rates are currently at their highest rate since legalisation in 1968. Although the number of conceptions are falling the proportion ending in abortion has increased over the last ten years.

Geographic variation in pregnancy rate

High teenage pregnancy rates are found in areas with low GCSE exam success such as Nottingham, Kingston upon Hull, Doncaster, Barnsley, Middlesbrough, Manchester (highest), Sandwell, Bristol, Stoke on Trent, Bradford, North East Lincolnshire, and Blackpool. In 1997, A study revealed that there was a north and south divide in the rate of conceptions to under 18s. With the highest rates and proportion leading to maternity being in the north of Britain and the lowest rates with the highest proportion leading to abortion, being in the south, with London being the exception having both high rates of conception and those leading to an abortion.