Teenage pregnancy and how to use stats
Don’t often find myself on the same side as Tim Worstall, but he has a point here, about the difference between numbers of teenage pregnancies, which vary according to the number of teenagers at any one time (two pregnancies in a cohort of ten 15 year-old girls is high, two in a cohort of 100 is not) and the rate of teenage pregnancy (as expressed by pregnancies per one thousand young women). I made a similar point about the teenage pregnancy doom-mongers a few years ago. The important figure - the rate - is falling. Now is not the time to give up on the teenage pregnancy strategy.
I am currently doing some research into this area (just starting out) and whether the christian church (Mainly church of England) should step in with stronger moral teaching or not, and whether this would do any good. Sort of “keep yourself till you are married”, but also, for those teenagers who do get pregnant, perhaps offer guidance (”counselling”) that would help them through the difficult times of parenthood. Any opinions on this?
[...] Having managed to start off the New Year with myself and Antonia Bance actually agreeing on a point we then get this: [...]
It is a great shame that someone who purports to represent the people of Oxford is so pro-abortion. An unborn child might be dependent on its mother, but is genetically distinct from her - no miracle happens as a child passes down the birth canal to make it suddenly a “person”. If I have rights now, I had them then too. By encouraging abortion and contraception you are just encouraging quick-fix solutions with no regard for consequences or respect for the human body.
I love it when the anti-abortion crowd let slip a little outburst about how bad contraception is too - showing it’s not the foetus they really care about, it’s the SEX YOU SHOULDN’T BE HAVING!!!