The UK has the highest level of teenage pregnancies in western Europe, the highest number of live births and the highest number of abortions. A decade of work between 1998 and 2008 reversed the upward trend but the British statistics are still well out of line with the experience of neighbouring countries: five times more babies are born to teenagers in the UK as in the Netherlands, twice as many as in Germany or France.
Babies born to teenage mothers are more likely to be underweight, or premature, or to suffer an accident. Their mothers are disproportionately likely to suffer postnatal depression and experience other episodes of mental illness. They are more likely to be educationally, economically or socially excluded. So making every teenage pregnancy a wanted pregnancy could only be a good thing. But no one thinks getting there will be easy.
Into this intractable problem, Professor John Ashton has lobbed the proposal of lowering the age of consent to 15. It is not quite clear why. The age of consent is 16 in the Netherlands, 15 in France and, in most circumstances, just 14 in Germany, so it seems unlikely there is any causal link between it and safe sexual activity. The professor, who is president of the Faculty of Public Health – more familiar from its pronouncements on diet and drink – believes that lowering the age limit might encourage more young people to seek advice and guidance. His argument doesn't stack up.
It is estimated that a third of teenagers have had sex by the time they're 16. It is true that too many of them get pregnant, but it's a very small proportion – about 40 per 100,000 – of the total number of sexually active teenagers. Doctors and family planning clinics are expressly allowed by the Department of Health to provide contraception and guidance to under-age clients as long as it is considered that they are capable of understanding the implications. And the Crown Prosecution Service is clear that, although where sex is not mutually agreed one child can commit an offence against another, consenting sexual activity is "highly unlikely" to be prosecuted. The worst to be said of the current law is that it is hypocritical.
Downing Street was quick to reject the Ashton proposal. It was certainly out of sync with Monday's child protection summit, where the attention will be on internet pornography. New agreements to blacklist certain sites will be hailed as a breakthrough. They are not to be scorned: one of the most damaging aspects of pornography is the exploitative relationships that it promotes. But what most young people need to develop the maturity to cope with sex and ultimately parenthood is the one thing this government seems reluctant to offer: better education about sex and relationships.
