Children [in UK] to get easier contraceptive access as pregnancies rise

The Telegraph ^ | 9/6/06 | Graeme Wilson

[bruinbirdman]

Contraceptives are to be more easily available for children under Labour's latest drive to tackle teenage pregnancy and social exclusion, Tony Blair pledged yesterday.

The controversial move is part of a campaign that will focus on areas where teenage pregnancy rates are rising.

Ministers are understood to be examining ways of making contraceptives more affordable for young people as well as of encouraging boys and young men to use condoms.

More details of the Government's plans will be spelt out next week when the Government publishes a new strategy paper on teenage pregnancy.

The flurry of activity reflects growing alarm in Downing Street that the number of teenage pregnancies has risen by nearly 12 per cent over the past decade, despite a string of initiatives.

Delivering a speech on social exclusion, the Prime Minister admitted that the Government had only made limited progress in tackling teenage pregnancy since coming to power nine years ago. Figures published last month showed that Labour missed its target of cutting the number of teenage pregnancies by 15 per cent between 1998 and 2004.

Mr Blair conceded that more needed to be done because teenage parents were more likely to end up "unemployed, have mental health problems and themselves have children who have babies as teenagers".

Speaking at a Joseph Rowntree Foundation conference in York, he added: "We will focus efforts on teenage pregnancy on those areas where rates are rising. We will begin an expanded media campaign and offer better access to contraceptives where appropriate."

But his comments were greeted with dismay last night by groups who are pressing ministers to adopt a new approach.

Anastasia de Waal, the head of family and education at the Right-wing think-tank Civitas, said: "There is already a huge emphasis on contraception and the Government should be doing more to show children the adverse outcomes of teenage pregnancy."

[bruinbirdman]

If Blair is leaving next July, I guess that makes him a short timer lame duck. Might as well get as much socialist degeneration legislation and regulation done while he has a chance.

[kinoxi]

The muslims should be the target group for this.

[garylmoore]

Yeah right, just give them condoms and tell them to go do it and be careful. I guess just teaching good old plain morality doesn't work.

[kingu]

And the data on who the fathers are is...? What? MISSING? Yet again? How could this be! After all, we quiz virtually every child on their sexual behavior; how could it not plainly say in the article that there's a failure by children to use condoms?

Oooooh, that's right, because there isn't any evidence of this. Look, they're tossing more condoms on children - just like they've done over and over again, and gosh, those pregnancies never seem to drop from that. But if you get a prosecutor or two serious about filing charges about statutory rape - my, that pregnancy rate falls through the floor.

The best answer is: don't tell children to use more condoms, tell adults to keep out of their pants. But that'd be homophobic, wouldn't it?

[bruinbirdman]

"And the data on who the fathers are is...? "

How about a law that says DNA of all children with no father listed on the birth certificate must be taken and analyzed and the father sought?

yitbos

[kinoxi]

The father sought on DNA evidence? Who are your initial suspects if you believe in the accuracy of current DNA analysis? Every male in your jurisdiction?

[bruinbirdman]

" Who are your initial suspects if you believe in the accuracy of current DNA analysis?"

We'll just keep the kids DNA on file. In case the mother wants to name the father, there is proof one way or another. If someone else wants to name the father, so much the better. Make him pay.

Many fathers deny paternity to get out of child support. Or jail.

yitbos

[kinoxi]

We'll just keep the kids DNA on file. In case the mother wants to name the father

Where do you get the samples from in the first place?

[kinoxi]

How about a law that says DNA of all children with no father listed on the birth certificate must be taken and analyzed and the father sought?

So as to not be taken out of context. Where does the DNA base come from?

[Canard]

"don't tell children to use more condoms, tell adults to keep out of their pants. But that'd be homophobic, wouldn't it?"

Homophobic? I'm puzzled as to how doing something in an attempt to cut teenage pregnancy, whether we agree it's a good idea or not, could possibly qualify as 'homophobic'?!

[Rembrandt_fan]

The article read, "Anastasia de Waal, the head of family and education at the Right-wing think-tank Civitas, said: "There is already a huge emphasis on contraception and the Government should be doing more to show children the adverse outcomes of teenage pregnancy."

Even Ms. de Waal misses the point and for some reason fails to address the core problem, for which truckloads of birth control devices are not the answer. Children in Europe and America have been (and are being) bombarded with sexual images--film, television, books--for decades. The glorification of no-strings sexuality has been, essentially, the focus product of the longest running advertising campaign in the history of man, while traditional mores are depicted as hopelessly old-fashioned. Why? Because sex sells. Encouraging a kind of societal embrace of instant impulse gratification translates to the marketplace. Anything getting in the way of that particular message like, say, sexual restraint, is held up for derision. This loosening of traditional moral strictures also serves the left, which is, after all, ideologically descended from the likes of Rousseau and Lenin, who both believed the sexual act should be reduced to a purely physical event, without those cumbersome, reactionary, bourgeoisie emotional attachments. It isn't so much a conspiracy as it is a convergence of interests.

Case in point: my teen-aged daughter and I play a television game called 'pick the Christian'. In any given show (comedy, drama, it doesn't matter), we both try to pinpoint early on who will turn up as a person of faith, and we're almost always right. Why? Because the most neurotic, loud, nerdy, hypocritical, or otherwise dysfunctional character is usually (almost invariably) revealed as a Christian.

[kingu]

Homophobic? I'm puzzled as to how doing something in an attempt to cut teenage pregnancy, whether we agree it's a good idea or not, could possibly qualify as 'homophobic'?!

The loudest voice in any sexual issue involving children has been the homosexual community. About five years ago, they dropped the age of consent for male/male relations down to 16 in an effort to make things 'nondiscriminatory.' Two females engaging in similar acts would be against the law, because things are equal...

Homosexuals are also the biggest group pushing to drop that age of consent even further. Proposals of 12 are put forward time and time again. Anytime there is a debate of restoring the age of consent to 18, the homosexual groups protest it as being an act of homophobia; the same thing is happening here as well. For a time, they hit the jackpot in Arizona until the law was fixed.

[bruinbirdman]

"The glorification of no-strings sexuality has been, essentially, the focus product of the longest running advertising campaign in the history of man, while traditional mores are depicted as hopelessly old-fashioned. Why? Because sex sells."

The Culture War has many theaters of battle.

yitbos

[American in Israel]

Teach children about sex and you are either a government employee or a child molester. Same job, different title.

One pays better though.