Reducing Teenage Pregnancy: A Public Health Policy

PUBLIC HEALTH 1
Public Health
Student’s Name
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PUBLIC HEALTH 2
SUMMATIVE 1
Introduction
Reducing teenage pregnancy is the public health policy to be discussed in the essay
(Hadley, Ingham and Chandra-Mouli, 2016). This policy is an important issue because the
limitation of education along with career prospects to the young mothers will be reduced. The
essay will discuss the background information of the policy and describe why the policy is a
significant public health issue. Also, the bodies that support the policy, the contentious issues
and the impact of the policy on the society along with its effect on health service staff will be
discussed.
Background information
The rate of adolescent pregnancies in the UK especially in England had been for several
years outrageous compared to other western European nations and the results for young parents
along with their children were extremely poor. The governing body, the UK Labor Government
started a 10-year Teenage Pregnancy Policy for England in 1999. Their objective was to halve
the under eighteen conception rate. By 2014 the rate had declined to 22.9 per 1,000 (Hadley,
Ingham and Chandra-Mouli, 2016).
According to statistics, the conception rate among females of under-18 years declined to
13.3 percent and under-16 years were 11.7 percent between 1998 and 2008 (Hadley, Ingham and
Chandra-Mouli, 2016). The trends in teenage pregnancy in England indicate that by 2009 the rate
per 1000 females aged 15-19 was 25.3 and in 2015 the rate per 1000 females under 20 years was
14.5. Since it was brought about by the Labor Party it is part of a specific political ideology
(Whitworth, Cockerill and Lamb, 2017).