British Education Encourages Teenage Motherhood

Europe’s leader in teen pregnancy tries to fix the problem by making it worse.

April 17, 2009

Britain has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe. Approximately 4 of every 100 British girls under the age of 18 become pregnant every year. The government has responded to this social catastrophe by institutionalizing the problem, instituting a class on teenage motherhood for girls.

Teenage girls who are either pregnant or considering pregnancy will now be offered a gcse-level qualification—or secondary education qualification—on how to be a young, presumably unwed, parent. This first-ever parenting qualification for British teenagers has no age limit; some of the girls in previously offered courses of this ilk have been as young as 12.

This gcse-level qualification sends the message to teenage girls that having a baby while still at school is acceptable, even an achievement. It encourages pupils to have unmarried, underage sex, conferring misplaced respectability on minor girls having babies.

“We are failing a whole generation of young people,” Hilary Pannack, of sex education charity Straight Talking, said. “Teenage parents statistically are much more likely to become parents of children who themselves become teenage parents. That means generations of child poverty, which we need desperately to tackle.”

Numerous studies show that to have the best chance of success in life, a child needs a stable home life with two married, committed parents. The children of single parents, who typically live absent their biological fathers are, on average, two to three times more likely to be poor, to use drugs, to experience educational, health, emotional and behavioral problems, to become victims of child abuse and to engage in criminal behavior than their peers who have families.

A parent who is still a child herself is not equipped physically or emotionally to provide the secure family environment a child ideally needs.

To learn why family is so important—and the inspiring spiritual purpose of marriage and family—read Why Marriage! Soon Obsolete? and The Missing Dimension in Sex.