The Morning After Pill
Posted by: carolyn09city on: April 28, 2009
The new animated advert for the morning-after pill Levonelle was the first to be broadcast on TV. The advert will be shown after the 9pm by Sky, ITV and C4.
A campaign group warned that young girls will be “particularly susceptible” to the advert, and it caused outrage to many parents who immediately called to complain.
The advert which was shown after 9pm, showed a woman waking up next to a man after having sex and then going to the pharmacy to buy the contraceptive.
It seems that parents these days believe that by not informing teenagers about contraception, than they will also not be informed about sex. However the fact remains that most teenagers watch TV past 9 o’clock and I doubt there is any teenager that doesn’t. The majority are at the least thinking about sex, and many are already sexually active.
So shouldn’t they be informed and educated?
It seems ridiculous that parents should be outraged by the advert. Why would they prefer to have ignorant teenagers, who instead of taking sensible action just don’t where to go or what to do when they need help?
Britain has the highest teen pregnancy rates in Britain; maybe this is the reason why. We try to shield them from the truth but in the end the only people that we harm is them. As we all know when you take something away from someone then they want it even more. At least this way we can let them experiment whilst knowing that if anything goes wrong they will know where to go for help. Maybe through more openness and willingness to discuss sex, then teen pregnancies will decrease.
Loaf targets teen pregnancy
Posted by: carolyn09city on: April 27, 2009
An article by how-do.co.uk tells how and advertising campaigne has led to an 200% increase in teens calling advice helpline.
Click here to read.
Dear Mariposa
Posted by: carolyn09city on: April 19, 2009
Here is an extract of a letter written to an aborted foetus I found on the website (www.standupgirl.com). To read more please visit the site!!
Dear Mariposa,
I’m so sorry for what I did to you. I wouldn’t blame you if you hate me but I know you don’t. I know you forgave me. Although took your life, I feel as if you have never left my side, as though you console me every time you saw me cry.
I was only 18 with a babe in the arms and one on the way. The nurse told me I was selfish to keep your older brother just a few years earlier. She said, I was just 15 – to young to be a mother. At 18 there again, with you, I was pregnant with another. Planned Parenthood had told me I was a burden on society that I was the kind to drain the system clean, a parasite, if you know what I mean.
Incapable to provide for you and your brother, I was a child bride in the mist of divorce. I wasn’t yet a woman; I was just your mother. So confused, I was trying to do what I thought most right. *BUT I was the one who should have fought for your life*. When you came along, I was scared inside and I had begun to believe all-of-their-lies.
You could have had your own dreams; the college of your choice; maybe you would have changed the world. Abortion, they call it freedom of choice but what they didn’t say is the pain from abortion never goes away. Therefore, it’s not freedom; it’s bondage in a hidden way. (I love you babe.)
Online Help for Young Mums
Posted by: carolyn09city on: April 19, 2009
It has recently come to my attention that there are a couple of websites on the internet dedicated to helping young mums deal with their pregnancies. These sites allow you to upload videos and pictures, share your experiences and offer advice to young mums all over the world.
There are many shocking stories many of which concern young mothers in abusive relationships and young mothers who had been forced to either abort or give their children up for adoption by their parents. Reading these I’m pleased that these young mothers have somewhere to go when they need anonymous advice or the comfort of sharing their stories with other young women like them.
These websites offer scientific facts and findings, agony aunt advice and support help lines in order to encourage these girls to get help or even prevent them from future unplanned pregnancies. Young pregnant women are often just seen as statistics but the poignancy of their experiences often allow us such a heartfelt insight that one can only feel a familiarity to these young women.
These are young girls who are forced to become women to soon, young girls society has given up on, young girls who are bullied and belittled by their communities and young girls who are between and rock and a hard place with nowhere to turn.
The truth is we can look at it how we want to, we can each have our own opinions but at the end of the day these girls are human and however they came to be mothers they deserved a chance to make the best of their situations and instead of society pointing fingers more help should be given to them including non-judgmental counselling.
These young women need support and advice and these websites are one step in the right direction in getting them the right help.
http://www.likeitis.org/teenage_pregnancy.html
http://www.babyandbump.com/teen-pregnancy/
Teen Pregnancy – A Look at the Statistics
Posted by: carolyn09city on: April 18, 2009
In 1998, the Government implemented a Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, aimed at tackling the causes and consequences of teen pregnancy.
Different aspects of this strategy included a push for schools to offer more comprehensive sex education, providing more youth access to information about social and relationship issues, and increasing the availability of sexual health advice.
Although the UK has the highest teenage birth rates in Western Europe (worldwide, the birth rate is second only to the USA), overall statistical figures point to the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy being a success, with a 13.3% decline in the under-18s conception rate.
Government officials such as the Minister for Children, Young People and Families, Beverley Hughes, have expressed delight at these results, but still think more action needs to be taken to maintain these results and ensure young people are getting the appropriate education and support needed.
Young Mums Mansion
Posted by: carolyn09city on: April 16, 2009
This month saw a return of young months mansion a social experiment in which a group of young single parents move in together taking it in turns to lead the house in a communal living style. Through the different types of leadership the parents were often forced to face issues which affected their lives as single parents.
You can watch this on BBC i Player.
The Hospital
Posted by: carolyn09city on: April 14, 2009
The hospital is a series on channel four that focuses on the way teens take advantage of free NHS care.
Tonight the focus was on teen pregnancy, doctors and patients were interviewed and it shed light on the irresponsibility and immaturity of some of the young mums.
One girl smoked all the way through her pregnancy even though her pregnancy was already high risk due to her obesity.
Others moaned that if their pregnancy didn’t go their way they would not be happy and make the job of the nurses hell.
All the while doctors and nurses smiled through gritted teeth trying hard not to be judgemental.
I’m not a doctor so i can be, many of them seemed to think that it would never happen to them, its back to the sex education issue again, it obviously escaping the minds of some young girls that unprotected sex equals baby.
As for the ones who planned their pregnancy they also need to be educated that babies equal hard work, its simple math.
You can watch this episode on 40D and see what you think.
Teen Girls Pregnancy Pact
Posted by: carolyn09city on: April 8, 2009
Friendship pact, suicide pact…pregnancy pact!
Last year it came to the attention of the press that 18 American school girls in the same year in the same school all became pregnant.
Kim Daly who had been the school nurse at the time told BBC 3 that a number of girls were beginning to come in for multiple pregnancy tests and some of the girls weren’t entirely disappointed on discovery of their pregnancy.
The principle of Gloucester high in Gloucester, Massachusetts Joseph Sullivan told Time magazine that the pregnancies were all part of a secret pact. After the story became global he stated that he didn’t remember using the word pact but still stood by his story.
Members of the community and the mayor of glouster Carolyn Kirk deny that the pregnancies were due to a pact and none of the girls have confessed to the allegations.
As the small religious town try hard make the media forget the situation the question turns to why a group of girls would think it was a good idea to purposely get pregnant.
Some people blame the hit film Juno which was released in 2007, a film which undeniably made teen pregnancy look easy.
However i watched the film aged just 17 and it didnt make me want to go out and have a baby.
What does it say about the state of the world were living in and more importantly the state of mind that some young teenage girls are in?
You can watch the documentry 18 pregnant schoolgirls on BBC iPlayer.
The Sex Education Show
Posted by: carolyn09city on: April 2, 2009
The sex education show has returned to channel 4 for its second series. This time its focus is on pornography.
The four part series travels across England visiting secondary schools to give teens an in depth session on sex.
Along with the host Anna Richardson the show uses real life naked models, experts and graphic photos to help teens understand the misconceptions about sex and body parts that is delivered through the porn industry.
There is also a website which people can go to and post questions about sex which can be answered by the general public.
A teen survey by YouGov has revealed that 42 percent of teenagers regularly view porn and over a third say they get their advice about sex from magazines, the internet, friends and pornography so its a very good angle that the show has chosen to take.
The show so far has been very educational and in my opinion it should be setting the trend for the level of sex education that all schools should offer their pupils throughout the u.k.
My school sex education was pretty rubbish to put it plainly and consisted of my teacher repeatedly telling us “remember kids the safest sex is no sex!” This show offered more advice and knowledge than some teens have probably had in their entire life. Considering the current teen pregnancy rate this kind of approach is exactly what British teens need.
Controversial advice adverts
Posted by: carolyn09city on: March 30, 2009
The government has decided they want to cut the 9pm water shed in an act to cut teenage pregnancy.
The adverts are designed to raise awareness of the consequences of unprotected sex.
There are also plans to allow pro abortion groups to advertise for the first time.
The latter suggestion particularly is a controversial issue and has been met by opposition from pro life campaigners.
I am all for liberation for women and choice but what message is it really sending out? “Use a condom but if you forget or are unfortunate enough to get pregnant then you can always get rid of it”. Something doesn’t sit right. Considering over half of teenagers who get pregnant go on to have an abortion its not exactly an option that teenagers are uninformed about.
I hope that these adverts also inform the young public about the emotional trauma and life long regret that many young and older woman go through after having an abortion. Not to mention the harm you could also be causing your body, the reality of abortion is that its effects can last longer than the time it takes you to swollow a pill.
