Teenage pregnancy rates fall, but not far enough

Teenage pregnancy rates have fallen, latest figures from the government's statistics agency revealed today. According to data from the Office for National Statistics, 41,325 girls under 18 in England and Wales fell pregnant in 2008, a decline of 3.9% from 2007, while the number of pregnancies among the under-16s fell 7.6% to 7,577. But the decline is far short of the government's pledge to halve teenage pregnancies by 2010. Ministers committed to halve pregnancies among 15-to-17-year olds in England from the 1998 rate of 46.6 conceptions per 1,000 girls. Today's figures show a rate of 40.4 per 1,000 girls in 2008 - a drop of just over 13% against the baseline figure. Conception rates among under-16s fell by 6% to 7.8 per 1,000 girls in 2007. Just under half of pregnancies among 15-to-18 year-olds led to an abortion. In England, the north east had the highest the highest pregnancy rate of 49 per 1,000 girls aged 15 to 17, while the east of England had the lowest rate, at 31.4 per 1,000. The schools secretary, Ed Balls, defended the government's record on teenage pregnancies, but conceded it was going to be "really hard" to achieve the 50% reduction. "It was a really ambitious target - it was a 50% fall. I think it was right to set an ambitious target and it is going to be really hard to make that amount of fall," he said. "But it is not enough. I'm still worried about it and there is a lot more to do," he said. Victoria Sheard, deputy head of policy at Terrence Higgins Trust, said: "So long as the number of teenage pregnancies remains high, there is a need for young people to be given more information to protect themselves. Young people tell us it's not always easy to get the information and support they need about sex from schools and we have to listen to them. That's why we strongly welcome plans to make sex and relationships education a statutory part of the national curriculum. But information alone is not enough. There's a range of contraception out there now, so it's essential that young people are easily able to access contraceptive services and choose the method that works best for them."