An almost 50% Drop in Teen Pregnancy After UK Cuts Sex-Ed & Birth-Control Funding

A new study indicates that teen pregnancy rates drop when liberal contraceptive-based sex-education expenditures were slashed, the UK’s Catholic Herald reported. 

Researchers David Paton of Nottingham University Business School and Liam Wright of the School of Health and Related Research at the University of Sheffield led the study, published in The Journal of Health Economics.

England has been forced to make severe cuts in recent years to its budget, including tax funds for sex-ed in schools and free birth control.  The study sought to “examine the impact of reductions in local expenditure on one particular public health target: reducing rates of teen pregnancy.”

The Paton and Wright research team used statistics from 149-municipalities between 2009 and 2014 and found that after sex-ed budgets were cut, teen pregnancy rates fell by 42.6%.  The researchers discovered that taking away tax funding for contraceptive-focused sex-ed in schools actually reduced teen pregnancy.  “Contrary to predictions made at the time of the cuts, panel data estimates provide no evidence that areas which reduced expenditure the most have experienced relative increases in teenage pregnancy rates.  Rather, expenditure cuts are associated with small reductions in teen pregnancy rates,” they noted.

With the government cuts in sex-ed funding, teen pregnancies in England have fallen to their lowest level since 1969, according to the new study.  In fact, the statistics show teen pregnancy rates diminished the most in those areas where secular sex-ed budgets were most aggressively cut.

Paton and Wright suggest their data should be followed up with research into why cutting sex-ed leads to lowering teen pregnancy rates.  They speculate, “Underlying socio-economic factors such as education outcomes and alcohol consumption are found to be significant predictors of teen pregnancy.”

Liberals have claimed for decades that unwanted pregnancies would be reduced if the government funded more “safe-sex” instruction in public schools and paid for contraception distributed to teenage girls.  But by 1999, after 3-decades of sex-ed, England attained one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in Europe.

Paton and Wright’s research shows those government programs actually increase teen pregnancies, and in turn increase abortions for teen single mothers.

Scott Phelps of the Abstinence and Marriage Education Partnership said that he has seen it before.  “Specifically, Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest received a $4-million grant from the Obama Administration for sex education,” he continued.  “According to a report released by the Obama Administration itself, females in the program reported becoming pregnant at a higher rate than females receiving the alternative program.”  “So after $4-million of taxpayer funding, teen pregnancy increased among teens who received the government’s contraception-based sex education program,” Phelps concluded.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel