The age at which girls experience their first intercourse continues to fall. One in three girls now have sex before they are 16. Concerned by our position at the top of the European league table of teenage pregnancies - as well by the rise in sexually transmitted diseases - ministers this week released a comprehensive and caring package to meet this new challenge. It holds to the government's twin track: more support for teenagers who do become pregnant, including special help to complete their formal education; and an improved prevention programme, including better sex education and easier access to contraception through school clinics. The reaction of the moral minority was as predictable as it was ungracious: "Betrayal of our children" (Mail) and "Less sex, more dirt" (Telegraph).

The moralists wilfully refuse to recognise their preferred option - an abstinence campaign - has been a disaster in the country where it was launched: the US has an even higher teenage pregnancy rate than the UK. They ignore the fact that the vast majority of teenage pregnancies are unplanned and just over half are aborted. And they close their eyes to the much higher infant mortality rate for babies born to teenage mothers. Ministers were right to tackle the problem and set tough targets. In the 1970s, the UK had a similar teenage birth rate to other European states, but by the late 1990s it was twice as high as Germany, three times as high as France,and six times as high as the Netherlands.

Ministers have already achieved a small but significant drop in under 18 conception rates, which they want to halve by 2010. The new proposals have already been successfully tested. The education secretary is said to be furious by health department leaks of the plan. She should remember that all ministers committed themselves to backing the scheme. It will be subject to the approval of individual school governing bodies.