The United kingdom has the highest level of teenage pregnancies in western Europe, the highest amount of dwell births and the highest variety of abortions. A decade of perform among 1998 and 2008 reversed the upward trend but the British statistics are nonetheless effectively out of line with the knowledge of neighbouring countries: five occasions much more infants are born to youngsters in the Uk as in the Netherlands, twice as numerous as in Germany or France.
Infants born to teenage mothers are more probably to be underweight, or premature, or to endure an accident. Their mothers are disproportionately very likely to endure postnatal depression and experience other episodes of mental sickness. They are much more likely to be educationally, economically or socially excluded. So generating every teenage pregnancy a needed pregnancy could only be a excellent issue. But no one thinks getting there will be easy.
Into this intractable difficulty, Professor John Ashton has lobbed the proposal of lowering the age of consent to 15. It is not very clear why. The age of consent is 16 in the Netherlands, 15 in France and, in most conditions, just 14 in Germany, so it looks unlikely there is any causal hyperlink among it and secure sexual exercise. The professor, who is president of the Faculty of Public Overall health – far more familiar from its pronouncements on diet program and drink – believes that decreasing the age limit may well encourage a lot more young people to seek guidance and advice. His argument does not stack up.
It is estimated that a third of teens have had intercourse by the time they are 16. It is correct that as well numerous of them get pregnant, but it truly is a really modest proportion – about 40 per a hundred,000 – of the total quantity of sexually active teenagers. Medical doctors and family members organizing clinics are expressly allowed by the Department of Wellness to give contraception and guidance to under-age clientele as extended as it is regarded as that they are capable of understanding the implications. And the Crown Prosecution Support is clear that, despite the fact that exactly where sex is not mutually agreed 1 kid can commit an offence towards another, consenting sexual exercise is “extremely unlikely” to be prosecuted. The worst to be mentioned of the recent law is that it is hypocritical.
Downing Street was fast to reject the Ashton proposal. It was surely out of sync with Monday’s child protection summit, where the consideration will be on web pornography. New agreements to blacklist certain internet sites will be hailed as a breakthrough. They are not to be scorned: one of the most damaging factors of pornography is the exploitative relationships that it promotes. But what most youthful folks need to create the maturity to cope with sex and ultimately parenthood is the 1 thing this government appears reluctant to offer you: greater schooling about intercourse and relationships.
Age of consent: the politics of sex | Editorial
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