Comment 17 by strangebrew :

Comment 7 by SheerReason

I'm not sure why that is exactly that the UK has much higher rates of pregnancies, abortions etc. than the other European countries discussed in the article. Perhaps someone here could shed some light on the subject?

As Alan4discussion @ Comment 10 replied...religion is really at the base here of the problem And it will get worse.

They constantly foul up any responsible programming in schools for sex education and responsibilities. They do not want kids to understand the modern world...mainly because they have a circa 1950 attitude based on the 12th century...they are not helping in the least.

Now with faith schools they are really in the forefront of misleading and hopelessly dogmatic insistence that sex education must not be taught because it is for parents to do.

Most parents are even less informed then the kids these days... The media are hopeless, often towing the religious line, teachers and educators are hamstrung in what they can actually do or say in class for fear of receiving a disciplinary hearing for obscenity or worse. The peadophilanauts are in a constant crusade against a perceived but remarkably rare occurrence compared to their 'stranger danger' paranoid literature that cranks up the hysteria in parents and society and the media feed into that fear.

In that climate sex education suffers...resulting in a pathetic juvenile attempt involving bunny rabbits and banal innuendo...no wonder the kids giggle and blush at the back, and miss the point totally, there is no mature game plan available in blighty because old codgers in parliament and religious leaders tell the public that it is not needed. About the pregnancy and STI bonanza the only advice involves going to church more often.

Prudish behaviour is enforced from lingerie adverts to museum exhibits, yet the public get all excited and titillated by a 'Burlesque dancer' on 'Britain's got idiots'..(mind you she was good!)

And they love reading about sexy shenanigans & peccadilloes of the rich and demented...on a Sunday morning before church apparently...well those that go anyways!

In short it is a fucking mess...and the statistics are no shock. Britain is a wonderfully pragmatic country with many fine qualities but the lunatics are running the asylum...it will end in tears and it has many times, and will continue to do so until religion and self styled busy body moral heroes are told unequivocally to butt out! Of course in the meantime the kids lose out on valuable and important life lessons.

Sorry, I am not a religious apologist, but what your comments are way off the mark. Everything religion puts into the debate is wrong and unhelpful but you cannot pin teen pregnancy and STDs on religion. I was a teacher for many years and I can tell you the problem is more about getting the message of safe sex across.

These kids do not shape their actions in any way or form based on the views of a church they don't attend.

Educators in state schools do not "tow the religious line", quite the opposite. I was a teacher for years and I can tell you that in state schools the emphasis is on getting a message across about the health consequences of unprotected sex without making a comment about morality. This is why most schools have an open door policy to visiting a health advisor who can offer free contraception and advice in anonymity.

These measures have of course come up for criticism in the right wing press but as yet they have not effected policy.

So to repeat the problem would definitely be made worse if religious thinking made its mark; but the causes are multi-factorial.

If we abolished churches overnight the problem wouldn't go away. We need to be wary of portraying religion as the bogey man responsible for all societies ills and recognise society as a complex structure with many potential causes of harm.