Teenage Pregnancy in the United Kingdom

Teenage Pregnancy in
the United Kingdom

Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.............................................................................................................................................3
Positive Impact and Consequences..........................................................................................................3
Social and Economic Consequences........................................................................................................4
Neglect....................................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Also known as adolescent pregnancy, teenage pregnancy is when a female under the age
of 20 years becomes pregnant. There are many causes that can lead to pregnancy among
teenagers such as a lack of communication, peer-pressure, forced marriage as well as low levels
of education. The rate of pregnancy among teenagers in the United Kingdom is comparatively
high in relation to other countries. the rate was highest during the years 1960s and 1971.
Majority of teenage pregnancies are not planned and almost half of them end in abortions (Bath
and et.al., 2017). There are many researches which show that teenage pregnancy is associated
with poor outcomes for both young parents as well as their children. Teenage pregnancy is a very
big problem in the UK as this can lead to an increased risk of living in poverty. Teenage
Pregnancy Policy UK is a policy that was launched in the country in the year 1990 to reduce the
conception rate by the year 2010. The policy was needed in the country because the rate of
pregnancy among teenagers was increasing drastically and there was a need to control the same.
The main aim of the policy was to reduce the historically high rate of teenage pregnancy as well
as reduce social exclusion. The essay includes an explanation about the legislation as its impact
on the topic. Apart from this, there is also a description of the different ways in which the policy
has helped service delivery and social care.
MAIN BODY
Positive Impact and Consequences
The overall impact of the Teenage Pregnancy Policy in terms of service delivery as well
as social care has been positive. This is because since the start of the strategy the overall rate of
pregnancy among teenagers under the age of 18 years has been reduced by 51%. The United
Kingdom has a long lifestyle of fairly high numbers of youth conceptions. Although the rates
have shown a slight lower over recent years, this decline has been appreciably decrease than that
observed in other western European countries. There have, but, been a few big adjustments in the
course of this period. First, the proportion of conceptions that end in termination has been rising
steadily and today, the percentage of those teenage conceptions which have come about within
marriage or stable partnership has reduced markedly (Bukasa and et.al., 2018). The children are
now able to talk to not only their parents, but even guardians or counsellors about pregnancy in
their age.