Teen pregnancies at lowest since 1970s in England, study reveals

A study shows that there is a significant dip in the number of teenage pregnancies in England, and Christian counselors deem this as good news. However, they also expressed concern that not many Christian schools are providing sex education classes.

In a study published on The Lancet, researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the University College London found that the under-18 conception rate has dropped by 50 percent in 2010, reaching its lowest point since the '70s.

Lead researcher Professor Kaye Wellings said that there is a near-universal trend toward less numbers of early conception, and this could be due to young people spending more time in education and deciding to settle with a partner at a later time. The decline suggests that the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy introduced in 1999 by the government is bearing fruit.

"But the more striking decline in under-18 maternities in England compared with other European countries, and its close link with government investment in reducing teenage pregnancy rates, appears to reflect the intensive and sustained efforts of the strategy to address the problem by changing social norms and increasing access to education and reliable contraception," Wellings said, as quoted on the UCL website.

While Christian counselors at CrossWay Pregnancy Crisis Centre are happy with the news, they also expressed that there is more need to educate the young about relationships and sex. According to Premier, they find that many Christian schools are not providing sex education classes.

Karen Pitchford, the centre's director, said that parents and guardians will not be able to protect their children for long, and these kids will eventually have to be faced with decisions; thus, "it's important that they get information not just from their parents but from other people."

"[When] we teach maths, we start at the bottom and then work gradually up to more complicated maths. It's the same with sex education, really," Pitchford told Premier. "It's about age-appropriate information ... people learning about life and how to make good choices."

Pitchford has the same stance regarding abortion cases. She said that by providing people with more information, there is a chance that less women and teenage girls would seek to have their pregnancies terminated. Access to information is the way to enable people to make good choices.