Teen mum rise for part of county
Wednesday 24th February 2010, 1:48PM GMT.
The number of teenage pregnancies in parts of Shropshire has risen by three per cent, official figures reveal today.
A total of 168 women aged under 18 fell pregnant in Telford & Wrekin in 2008 – up from 162 in 2007.
Across the rest of the county, there was a four per cent drop from 183 to 176, during the same period.
The latest data was released by the Office for National Statistics. It showed a four per cent drop – down from 42,988 to 41,325 – across England and Wales. Of these young women, 49 per cent had an abortion, compared with 50 per cent in 2007.
The Government has pledged to halve teenage pregnancy rates among girls under 18 by this year, but is widely expected to miss that target. Schools Secretary Ed Balls defended the Government’s record on teenage pregnancies. He said the statistics showed the rate was now the lowest it had been for well over a decade.
But he conceded that it was going to be “really hard” to achieve the pledged target of a 50 per cent decline on 1998 figures by 2010. Commenting on the latest figures, he added: “This has been really successful. But it is not enough.”
Since 2002 the number of teenage girls falling pregnant in England and Wales has been steadily falling, despite a slight rise in 2007.
Children’s Minister Dawn Primarolo said: “Last year’s increase was very disappointing so I am particularly pleased that today’s statistics put us back on track.”
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I am suprised it is not higher, the government has turned this into a lucrative career, at the taxpayers expense.
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I blame the parents for failing to teach their kids some self respect and encouraging them to use contraception. My own daughters managed to get all the way through their teens without getting pregnant, if they can do it, so can all the others.
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Teenage pregnancies in Telford? Who would have thought it? I am completely flabbergasted!
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A direct consequence of a benefit system which encourages some (not all), to take this route as a career option I’m afraid.
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I don’t think that it’s a case of not being educated. Rather more of heres the home and heres the handouts.
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Slappers rejoice! And all the (actual working people) of Telford take comfort knowing they will be taxed to pay for the Slappers single motherhood.
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Too harsh Andrew – they’re not all slappers, some are good mums who got caught unlucky – contraception is only ever 99% effective so someone’s gotta fall into the 1% category!
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Again, What a society we live in, immediatley provide an abortion and if to late when they give birth we take the children off of them. They can have the children back when they are in a stable relationship and are no longer feeding off the money of the hard earned taxpayer. When they have a proper job and a proper education.
Harsh but still. If the mindset is to have a child and then get a house and claim more money from the government then that mindset needs to be changed. And it needs to be changed now!!
Telford Town Centre is full of what I would call’Chavvy’ young mothers.
This needs to change.
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It is a real shame that all males that have unwantedly got a girl pregnant don’t have some distinguishing mark thereafter for all to see.
Then again it would probably be seen as a badge of honour by some.
#2 Do they have a special certificate John? You must be so proud.
I can see it now.
I hereby declare that my daughters have not fallen with child(not to my knowledge anyway) and are now in the safe hands of post teenhood.
I therefore declare that I and they can look down upon any other teenage girl who has not achieved this high standard of accomplishment.
Signed …..
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Single mothers in Telford …………no way. Next they’ll be telling us that is full of chavs, criminals and boy racers!
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@ 3, ……muppet
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John Smith, your daughters probably keep their sex lives private. Maybe they got caught out and decided on a termination. If they are having sex then they could get pregnant, the pill, coil, condoms are not 100% reliable.
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thats telford for you, get more babies aand you get more benefits good old labour look after their own hey
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The figure is 168 out of how many total pregnancies in Telford for the year? The article suggests that these are pregnancies of under 18 year old women…it does not state under 16 year olds. Therefore these women were above the age of consent and no law has been broken. Most parents (me included) prefer their children to be well into adulthood before they conceive but nothing illegal has happened here. I would presume with certainty that males had some part to play in these conceptions but there is no moral outrage directed towards that gender. And how arrogant, pompous and presumptuous so many of the contributors are regarding the supposed “motives” for these children being born; and snobbishly aloof with regards to Telford. I have read the article several times and see no mention of career choices, money or housing claims. The article is about pregnancy, not about crime, moral ineptitude, money, housing or sin. I’ve just double checked my calender and it is 2010 not 1910.
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No Simon, there is no explicit reference, but I am sure these contributors could provide empirical evidence that the issues of morality,sin, crime and housing claims are often linked to teenage pregnancy. I suggest that some of the 168 were indeed under 16, although I do not have access to the figures. You dont need to be snobbishly aloof to draw conclusions from these figures which contrast with the rest of the county.
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No Simon, not arrogant, pompous or presumptuous – my comment is based entirely on experience of these circumstances gained through my employment – FACT! I believe I have also made in perfectly clear that I wasn’t labelling all young mothers in this way, so if you’d care to read my earlier comment again – the clue is in brackets in case you missed it first time around.
Time to remove your rose tinted spectacles perhaps?
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The thing that bugs me the most is the sheer unashamed audaciousness of some of these teen mums. In a civilised society they would hang their heads in shame and then be on a proving mission to show people they are decent human beings who maybe made a mistake. I am sick of going to ASDA for my credit crunch minded shopping if not dodging obese people on mobility scooters is enough you are repeatedly barged out of the way by teams of cross eyed teen mums on the latest mobile phones with trollies full of crisps, chocolate, achohol and ciragettes that we are paying for. It is absolutely appauling that decent hard working people in this country have to tollerate this behaviour where you are made to feel the second class citizen. Folk need to be making a stand in this country, things have to change.
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Mark
My comment was directed at the generality of some of the posts not at yours per se. Capitalising the word FACT is common in these blogs but to me it does not demonstrate a greater truth, it merely shows that the contributor can use more than one finger to type. My frustration is that an article which provides relatively limited data is then elaborated on and dissected by assuption and implication. Now if the article included research to state that a percentage of these women were in fact underage girls, or that pregnancies were genuinely motivated for the benefits they might reap, that would be worthy of some of the comments made. The article does not provide such information and as such these 168 under 18 year olds have had their characters attacked en masse. And none of those who make contentious assumptions has any direct facts upon which to refer.
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It takes two to tango, the male is as much to blame. If I ever have a son, I will tell him to either keep it in his pants or put a condom on it!!! Risks of both pregnancy and STDs are clearly explained to both sexes at school I believe!!!!
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Brimondo said:
“Single mothers in Britain …………no way. Next they’ll be telling us that is full of chavs, criminals and boy racers!”
Edited for accuracy :-)
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well said Simon and Florence, these self appointed guardians of morals need to get a grip. If they can’t see for themselves that articles such as these are little more than sensation seeking and scaremongering you have to at least feel a bit sorry for them for not being able to.
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Simon: thank you for crediting me with the ability to type with more than one finger; it’s a skill I’ve had for some time now.
Whilst you’re quite correct in saying that the story makes no reference to state benefits being a motivating factor, the fact remains that there is a direct connection – trust me, it’s what I deal with day in day out, and is therefore a relevant observation to make in relation to this article. Anyone who denies this is so is, quite frankly, burying his or her head in the sand.
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