5:42am Monday 11th February 2008
By Andy Tate
A HAMPSHIRE MP has demanded extra sex education in schools to end Southampton's reputation as "the teenage pregnancy capital of the south".
Sandra Gidley, Liberal Democrat MP for Romsey, said teaching children more about relationships, sex and the dangers of alcohol would give them a sense of respect and help them avoid getting pregnant before they were ready.
Mrs Gidley said areas like Southampton remained hot spots for drink-fuelled, unprotected sex among young people, despite government claims of a national fall in teen conceptions.
Ministers have set themselves a target of halving teenage pregnancies by 2010.
But last year the Daily Echo reported that conceptions among 15 to 17-year-old girls in Hampshire, which had dipped slightly, were back on the rise across most of the county.
The latest data, covering 2005, revealed that 1,238 girls in the county got pregnant over the year - an increase of 3.3 per cent compared with the 1,198 conceptions the previous year.
In Southampton the teen pregnancy rate rose from 56.1 per 1,000 of the female population to 58.8 per 1,000 - the highest rate in the south of England.
Mrs Gidley, speaking in the Commons, said Southampton had been dubbed "the teenage pregnancy capital of the south" and called for children in the city to be made aware of the "clear link between the over-consumption of alcohol and unintended pregnancy".
Otherwise, she added, "they may go home with more than a hangover".
© Copyright 2001-2010 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.thisishampshire.net