Young, pregnant and, unmarried in Britain

IT WAS late in 2007 that the Population Action International report revealed that Britain has the worst record in teenage pregnancy in Europe. Between 2004 and 2007, 23,556 girls under the age of consent (18 years) became pregnant in England and Wales. Twenty girls aged 13 to 15 become pregnant everyday.

Of the 23,556 pregnancies, 13,474 ended in abortion. Young British women who are sexually active may find themselves a part of the latest attempt to curb teenage pregnancies.

Now there is a government scheme to address the problem. All teenage girls are to fall under a government scheme, whereby they will be "advised" to go on long-term contraceptives.

It is already permissible for girls to get the morning-after pill from school nurses without permission from their parents, and this also includes other contraceptives for girls aged under 16.

The intention is backed by £26.8 million ($77 million) from the government to be given to the Ministry of Health. One can almost imagine cattle, not girls, being herded through a pen to be jabbed for practising the very liberty they have been told that they have.

Without the permission and even knowledge of the parents, an adolescent girl will be steered toward one of the following choices, which can have side affects for some users:

Injection can cause heavy periods, prolonged periods, absent periods, headaches, weakness, dizziness, weight gain, delayed return of fertility, and thickness of the cervical mucus, which prevents penetration of sperm.

Coil can cause pelvic infection, increased risk of tubal pregnancies, increased cramps, and increased bleeding. It has been found that it can stop the efficacy of the cancer drug Tamoxifen.

Implant can cause irregular or prolonged bleeding, spotting, infection at the site of the implant, headaches, dizziness, mood changes, acne, or weight gain.

Intrauterine can cause nausea, tenderness in the chest, dizziness, menstrual cramps, or ovarian cysts.

If these girls have not yet qualified as non-persons like the detainees in Guantanamo, maybe they will be given proper counsel as to the real options. However, with the prevalent attitude that the body can be treated like a piece of software, only with hindsight will these young girls be able to reflect on the choices that they have made with their adolescence.

Despite all the possible reasons, experts are at a loss as to why this is happening, even after factoring in the availability of sex education and availability of contraception, school nurses, and fertility rates. In fact, in the UK, there has been a steady increase in teenage pregnancy since the late 1950s, when promiscuity became socially acceptable.

In the comprehensive report Adolescent Angst prepared by counsellors, drug experts, and mental health charities and commissioned by the Priory Group, a study, which focused on 12- to 19-year-olds found the following, "Society is more relaxed than 50 or 60 years ago — traditional controls have largely evaporated. While the biological menarche is dropping due to estrogens in the system and better nutrition, increased cognitive and emotional maturation at a younger age isn't — so 12-, 14-, and 16-year-olds are still largely 12-, 14-, and 16-year olds . Unfortunately, as in generations past, today's teens worry after the event — the immediacy of the urge overcomes all anxieties".

From the report, Thomas and Goodchild summarised, "Family breakup, increasing pressure to achieve at school, a lack of tolerance in society, and an 'anything goes' attitude are all contributing to a rise in the number of young people pushed to the brink of suicide, with others driven to experiment with drugs, drink, and underage sex as a way of coping with stress".

That was a local 2005 report, but it took a 2007 international survey for the government to take action, albeit a knee-jerk reaction.

The response of governmental agencies to the problem only looks within the framework of what has been accepted and expected of a 20th or 21st century secular lifestyle.

Rather than to look at what it is about the society to administer what leads to the problem, the response is simply to control, and to control in this instance means contraceptives or sex education, which just promotes more contraceptives and the notion that sex is generally natural, not that sex is natural within marriage. The issue then seems to be not teenagers having sex but teenagers getting pregnant! Maybe one day it might sink in that:

"Contraceptives are not hundred-percent preventative.

"Teenagers are not always 'in control' when a situation arises."

Pregnancy is a natural product of sex.

The human body was never designed with a convenient on-and-off switch, for one to do as he or she desires, and no matter how much we become "advanced" in health and medicine, there are natural laws that govern what women can and cannot do.

Some do need to marry young, but for a balanced life, that can only happen where there is a social supportive mechanism to do so.

Marriage should not be perceived as the beginning and the end of a woman's life, and the women's body should not be viewed as a product of convenience. Maybe the values of society need to change before we can expect the values of the products of society, teenagers, to change.

The writer is Managing Editor of the" Family, Cyber and Parenting"

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