This would appear to be good news, though it’s noticeable that the North-East still has a much higher rate than the rest of the country:

These rates are clearly still high, but at least they’re moving in the right direction. Clearly, someone’s forgotten to point that out to the Daily Mail, who are reporting that

The number of teenage girls getting pregnant has risen, new statistics show.

The difference is that the Times take the logical approach of reporting the pregnancy rate, whereas The Daily Mail choose to report using the raw figures, which it is clearly absurd to compare year-on-year. But they have done. So either they’re bottom of the maths class, or they just want to scaremonger. You decide.

More controversial is the bit tagged on to the Times article:

Abortions are at an all-time high, reaching 18.6 per 1,000 women in March last year. The number aged 30-34 having abortions doubled between 1976 and 2003, to 14,600. The total number of all ages having abortions in 2003 was 190,700.

I don’t have a problem with this, but I’m fairly sure someone will have. And to think, the Daily Mail wouldn’t have needed to fiddle the figures if it had just gotten its knickers in a twist about this.

Your Comments and Responses

Flicking back through some posts, I realise that I’ve used the word ‘gotten’ here. I think I was possibly ill, or something, when I wrote that, because it’s certainly not the kind of word I’d usually use, living as I do on the East side of the pond. Just thinking that I wrote that makes me feel dirty. Get the Americanism off me!

» This comment was received at 23:12 on 25 June 05

Well I’am a teenage mother and I’am still going to school I finded hard but I want to be a role model for other young mother not to give up they could still succided for their child and get an education

» This comment was received at 17:43 on 24 May 06

I wish you the very best of luck with continuing your education. You might also be interested in the story here, about a girl who gave birth in the middle of her GCSEs, and yet still managed to get twelve – seven with ‘A’ grades.

» This comment was received at 17:48 on 24 May 06

Helloo.
I am also a teenage mam I’m 15. I gave birth to my son 6 weeks ago and I am back at school already. I continued with school up until I was 30 weeks pregnant then I left. I want to have the best for my son so I am sticking in at school so I can do my GCSE’s. If I haden’t had Jake I would probably be still with my old ways and I probably would leave school with no GCSE’s or poor grades but now I have something to stick in for. I wake up on a morning and I want to do the best for him. =D

Tiff.

xxx

» This comment was received at 18:17 on 11 May 08

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