"Teenage pregnancy is the right decision for me"

... is what some British girls as young as thirteen are saying today according to a study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Isn't it more than a little concerning that people are actually choosing to get up the duff rather than go into low-paid dead-end jobs at the likes of Tesco?

I think there should be a law against childbirth till they are at least 16. Some will say it is a draconian standpoint, however IMO you are not able to adequately raise a child till at least 16. Just my opinion, you can take it or leave it.

How on earth are you planning to pass a law against a natural bodily function?!

By trying to do what is best for both children.

That doesn't make any sense in the context of my question.

What are you going to do, sew her vadge up till she gets to sixteen!?

I wish more people would show they cared by making laws to limit my personal freedoms for my own good.

you can't stop it however you can say give the child up for adoption.

ROFL.. wiretap your phone perhaps?

So you want to force someone to give up their child?

Rather totalitarian, aren't you?!

I told you it would sound draconian, in fact I stated that up front.

yea but when its a 13 year old girl, there is still going to be a doting Grand mother that would tear your face off if you tried to take the baby..

Teen pregnancy rates in the UK are the highest in Western Europe, but they have been dropping since the '90s, according to this:

http://www.nhsinherts.nhs.uk/hp/health_topics/teenage_pregnancy/teenage_pregnancy.htm

So this doesn't call for a crisis and new drastic measures. It calls for finding out what caused the reduction and improving on it.

I read this in an actual paper paper, but I've found the link to the story online:

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/218/218221_girls_plan_to_be_teen_mothers.html

This is a pretty bizarre attitude to have, isn't it? How does having a child help you escape from low-end jobs and poor education? Usually it just means a low-end job and a screaming baby.

It is rather - my thoughts are that you're going to end up with a job at Home and Bargain and childcare costs to stump up. But you do get higher on the council flat waiting list if you're with child.

But it does mean the state pays you. There are some who'd rather not work for a living... especially if the government pays them to have kids.

Oh, right. I tend to forget that since the U.S. has trended away from a welfare culture. Of course, the teen pregnancy rate is even higher here, although it is also on the decline.

I think there should be a law against stating, "I think there should be a law ..."

The sentence, 15 years minimum. Death if we're feeling really antsy.

If we did this, maybe we'd get fewer dumb laws since, frankly, the people most likely to say "I think there should be a law ..." are the people least likely to have the slightest clue what impact their proposed law(s) would really have.

Let's act now and nip bad layperson-proposed laws in the bud.

Ok they really need to be smacked in the head. I had my son when I was 18, he was a "that wasn't supposed to break" baby. I love him dearly, but if I would have had the choice I would have waited much longer to have him. What these stupid little girls don't seem to get is that babies aren't like dollies, and it's not right to foist your baby off on your parent so you can go still be a kid. My mother did the right thing, and stepped back and said she had raised her kids and it was my job to raise mine. It's been tough, I'm 25 and still trying to finish college, I don't make a lot of money, and what I do gets spent on raising children. Someone really needs to take these girls and have them spend a week with someone like me, so they know how rough it is.

In all seriousness, this I agree wholeheartedly with. Educating these girls is key because that's what's going to help if anything does.

Yeah! Fuck democracy!

"How does having a child help you escape from low-end jobs and poor education?"

The state helps them with money and a home, considering (wisely) that punishing the parent with poverty would be punishing the child in the same manner, and taking the child away from the parent just adds to the vast numbers of children needing, and not getting, adoptive parents.

On the radio just today I heard that they are trialling a scheme in which "at risk" teenagers are taken to spend a day with toddlers at a day nursery. Hours on end with screaming, difficult to manage children are enough to put a bit of realism into most broody teenagers.

Musuko.

hmm my oldest son was born when I was 19 and the second when I was 21. Neither was actually planned, well they were planned but not that soon. Stupid honeymoon

You're assuming the father is another teenager, which may not be the case -- the 3 under-16 girls I know who got knocked up were all involved with guys over 20; one of them was over 30, and should have been prosecuted, but the mother had never been married either, and seemed to think it was normal.

The one under-16 boy I've met who was a father was 14, and had just knocked up his 2nd girl, and thought he was seriously hot stuff.

They don't think about who's going to pay the medical bills, or feed the kid, or change the diapers when they want to go out to a club or go hang out at a mall. The grandparents end up raising the babies, or social services.

As the mother of a soon to be 13 year old girl, the only face I'd be tearing off is the little asshat's who knocked her up.

Personally, I'd put both the teen mother and her baby in foster care. If you can't adequately supervise your teenager and she gets pregnant, she should go into a rigidly supervised program for teenaged mothers that forces the teen to go to school, take care of her own child (no daycare for time off for fun) and teach her the skills she will need to take care of her own kid without government intervention or handouts by the time she's 18. There would also be court ordered Depo Provera shots for the little mommies in my program.

This is my humble opinion as the mother of a pre teen girl and a nurse who used to take care of newborns ( I've seen TOO many young teen mothers in my day).

Personally, I have tried to instill a sense of responsibility and self worth in my daughter. I hope she will have more sense than to think a baby is a good thing to have at 13.

I also watch her little ass like a hawk!