Public Health: Are we failing our teenagers?
24/1/2007

This week's editorial in the BMJ highlights research that shows that the millions being ploughed into sex education for teenagers has had no effect on the use of contraception.

A member of the Royal College of General Practitioners has writtent the editorial in this weeks BMJ on the report by Henderson et al link on the "Impact of a theoretically based sex education programme (SHARE) delivered by teachers on NHS registered conceptions and terminations". They looked at the difference in numbers of conceptions and terminations between groups given specially designed sex education and conventional provision. It has shown that 'enhancing teacher led school sex education beyond conventional provision in eastern Scotland is unlikely to reduce terminations in teenagers'.  Has the Government's agenda on teenage pregnancy failed? Are abortions now seen as an alternative method of contraception? What are the long term consequences for the NHS?

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