Teenage pregnancies in England increased in 2005

The number of pregnancies among girls under age 18 in England increased from 39,593 in 2004 to 39,683 in 2005, according to figures released Friday by the Office for National Statistics, London's Daily Telegraph reports (Womack, Daily Telegraph, 2/23).

Pregnancy rates among girls in the age group declined from 41.5 pregnancies per 1,000 girls in 2004 to 41.1 pregnancies per 1,000 girls in 2005, according to the report (Doughty, Daily Mail, 2/23).

The government in 1999 launched a Teenage Pregnancy Unit, which aims to halve pregnancy rates among minors by 2010. Last year, the unit announced it had not reached its interim target of a 15% reduction in the rate.

The Office for National Statistics report also showed that 7,462 girls ages 16 and younger became pregnant in 2005, up from 7,181 pregnancies in 2004 (Womack, Daily Telegraph, 2/23).

The report also showed that teenagers who become pregnant in the lowest-income areas of the country are 10 times more likely than those in wealthier areas to carry their pregnancies to term rather than having an abortion.

According to the latest figures, England and Wales have the highest teenage birth rate in Western Europe, London's Daily Mail reports.

United Kingdom Minister for Children Beverley Hughes said that the government is conducting a "major review" of its nearly $272 million teenage pregnancy initiative (Daily Mail, 2/23).

David Paton, an author of the report, said, "Progress towards the government's teenage pregnancy strategy has been disappointing."

He added that the decrease in teenage pregnancy rates that were occurring before the unit was introduced "have tailed off since 2001, [while] rates of sexually transmitted infections amongst young people have continued to increase dramatically."

According to the Daily Telgraph, some members of Parliament are proposing laws similar to those in the U.S. that require minors to notify their parents or guardians before seeking an abortion (Daily Telegraph, 2/23).