One in five sexually-active teenage girls in Britain has been pregnant by the age of 18 , shocking figures have revealed.The first survey of its kind found that 83 per cent of girls have lost their virginity by this age and 18 per cent of these youngsters have been pregnant at least once.About half chose to keep their babies and more than a third had an abortion, according to the Government survey.
According to report published in Daily Mail,previous research has shown that girls feel they are under increasing pressure to have sex before they are ready, partly because of sexy images projected in marketing and teen magazines.
The statistics from this latest study show more than a quarter of girls said they had not waited until the age of consent and twenty-sevenper cent of 4,298 girls questioned for the study had lost their virginity by the time they turned 16.The data once again reignites the controversy over Britain`s teenage pregnancy rate, which is the highest in Western Europe, and Labour`s decade of failure to tackle the problem.
Figures released earlier this year revealed there were more pregnancies among girls under 18 in England in 2008 that there were in 2001.Family values campaigners have long warned easy access to contraception and an emphasis on poor quality sex education which fails to encourage teenagers to say `no` is fuelling the problem.
The survey shows how education plays an important role for youngsters as they are significantly less likely to have been pregnant by 18 if they did well at school and their parents have degrees.
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