Tim Worstall

Sex Education Works

Yup, gotta hand it to them, the campaigners are right. Sex education obviously works:

Abortions have reached record levels, and nearly a third of women who have an abortion have had one or more before.

Department
of Health statistics reveal that abortions in England and Wales rose by
more than 700 in 2005, from 185,713 in 2004 to 186,416.
…
Some 31 per cent of women had one or more previous abortions, a figure that rises to 43 per cent among black British women.

The ever increasing amount of sex education, the ever easier provision of contraception is clearly driving down the number of unwanted pregnancies.

In

10 responses

  1. Tom Reynolds Avatar
    Tom Reynolds

    Or is it some other variable that has changed?
    Like the lack of fear about AIDS these days (something witnessed when I visited the clap clinic).

    Reply
  2. William Avatar
    William

    Since you like pointing out things Sweden hasn’t (e.g. no inheritance tax) you might also point to the low level of abortion there, coupled with a high level of sex education.
    The reason teen sex in Britain is so fucked up (as it were) has been well known for a long time. Puritan/prurient societies (e.g. Britain, US) have this problem. Permissive societies (e.g. scandinavia) do not.
    Yes, it’s a simplification, but it’s a good one. Sex is everywhere here, but kids aren’t told how to deal with it.
    Actually, since you’re economics-oriented, you might consider ways to reduce the pregnancy rate by financial penalties for underage pregnancy e.g. no child support until the mum is 18. I bet a lot of people would suddenly get very careful, or their mums would tell them to be.
    Tim adds: I’ve heard a rumour somewhere that Iceland has an instrictive system. Fathers cough up the child support or they get moved off to a farm work camp out in the countryside. Said to work well.

    Reply
  3. Karl Rove Avatar
    Karl Rove

    Actually Sweden has a HIGH abortion rate. It has a HIGH teen pregnancy rate – but a low teen birth rate. Like the people who run our sex miseducation system, you can’t tell the difference between a pregnancy and a live birth.
    The place with the low teen birth rate is Holland. Anything to do with the fact that teenage mothers get nothing from the Welfare State by right?

    Reply
  4. Shinobi Avatar
    Shinobi

    That’s a .4% increase. Not even half a percentage point. And based on the statistics I’ve been able to locate this is the smallest increase of the last three years.
    This is a clearly biased view of these statistics.
    Tim adds: Yup, I am biased. You OK with that?

    Reply
  5. Jon Avatar
    Jon

    Karl, where are you getting your figures from?
    According to this site…
    http://www.siecus.org/pubs/fact/fact0010.html
    …the abortion rate among Swedish teenage girls was 17.2 per 1000 in 1996, which compares favourably to 18.4 in GB, 21.2 in Canada and 29.2 in the US. Also, their teen pregnancy rate is far lower — 25 per 1000 versus ~46 per 1000 for GB and Canada, and an astonishing 94.3 per 1000 in the States.

    Reply
  6. Stuart Avatar
    Stuart

    Some valid points there – top of the line: Shouldn’t Tim actually perform some economic analysis before jumping to such a conclusion?

    Reply
  7. Lies and Statistics Avatar
    Lies and Statistics

    Abortion Statistics: Lies for Life

    This post by Tim Worstall (thanks chez) gives the most biased interpretation of an already biased article I’ve seen in quite some time.

    Reply
  8. Barry Avatar
    Barry

    Jon, where do you *think* that somebody flaunting the name of Karl Rove gets his stats from?

    Reply
  9. Mike D Avatar
    Mike D

    According to this
    for 1996 the abortion rate for England and Wales was 15.6 and for Sweden was 18.7. I’d also argue that my link is less likely to be politically biased than the siecus link.

    Reply
  10. Cara Fletcher Avatar
    Cara Fletcher

    I think sex education can help alot in preventing teenage pregnancy and teens should be taught how to act in their communication with others.

    Reply

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