Although the teenage pregnancy rate in Britain is falling in many areas, it still remains the highest in Western Europe.
Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo, when Launching the campaign at the Association for Young People's Health, announced that £14m will be made available to regional health authorities who come up with "innovative" pilot schemes for promoting contraception among the young.
These will be required to focus on areas with particularly high or increasing rates of teenage pregnancy. Young men as well as women will be targeted in campaigns promoting condom use. A further £12.8m will go directly to Primary Care Trusts, to spend on contraceptive services as they see appropriate.
In 2005, there were 39,804 conceptions by under-18s in England, a rate of 41.3 per thousand. These figures are twice as high as in Germany, three times as high as in France and six times as high as in the Netherlands.
Feb 2008 |
