www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/conceptionandfertilityrates/datasets/conceptionstatisticsenglandandwalesreferencetables
Top chart. Table 1.
The plummeting rates of teenage conception is one of the greatest public health achievements of 21st century Britain. In fact, given the overwhelmingly negative health and social outcomes for young teen mothers and their children, it’s probably the most impressive public health achievement in the U.K. for decades.
It’s a virtuous circle, too, because contrary to the glib jokes above about how “it isn’t catching!” there’s a wealth of evidence that teen pregnancy is contagious and the fewer girls young women see getting pregnant, the lower their chances are in turn.
I share the figures above because they clearly show that every year, about twice as many pregnant U-16s abort as keep the pregnancy.
I share this because despite literally no posters saying “I’d force my daughter to have an abortion” (unsurprisingly- that’s a serious crime) some posters seem unable to stop putting words in people’s mouths.
You don’t need to force them. The overwhelming majority of 14 year old girls are not sexually active. Those that are use contraception. Those whose contraception fails and who are unlucky enough to be part of the 300-odd pregnant 14 yos in all of England and Wales are twice as likely to abort as keep the pregnancy.
When mothers say “my daughter would not stay pregnant” they are not proposing committing a serious crime. Neither are they hopelessly naive. They are realistic - this is a horror story to the vast majority of teenage girls. The tiny amount (double, not triple figures each year) who continue the pregnancy are incredibly unusual.