Give 'em oral sex lessons

2004-05-27 07:00

London - A British government study has come out in favour of oral sex lessons in an attempt to cut soaring teen pregnancy rates.

The new government study found that pupils under 16 who were taught to consider forms of sexual contact other than intercourse were much less likely to engage in full intercourse.

Exeter university has developed a course to train teachers to inform pupils about so-called "stopping points" before full intercourse takes place.

Britain has far and away the highest teen pregnancy rate in Europe, with 39 286 recorded in 2002.

Teen pregnancy rates are soaring despite large sums expended to counter it and in the face of legislation that allows schools and medical professionals to help teenage girls undergo abortion without informing their parents.

The practice was highlighted in May when the anguished mother of a 14-year-old girl, who was given an oral abortifacient, complained and went to the press with her story.

"She was frightened. She felt she had let me down, but when she realised the support she would have got, she changed her mind," the unnamed Nottinghamshire mother told the BBC.

After discussions with the father of the unborn child and his family they decided they wanted to keep the baby but were told it was too late to halt the abortion, as the girl had taken the first of the two pills required.

'More mature' attitude

"They said it's too late. It has already starved the baby of oxygen. She will have to come in for the procedure or she will miscarry anyway in three or four weeks," the girl's mother said.

She accused teachers and medical staff of talking her daughter into having an abortion.

The Essex university plan hopes to prevent events of this kind.

An unpublished government-backed report has shown some success in trial, with girls developing a "more mature" attitude to sex, according to the Observer newspaper.

It said the government was likely to recommend the scheme, called A Pause, to schools, despite the belief in some quarters that sex education merely leads to greater sexual activity among teenagers.

John Tripp of the Department of Child Health at the university said pregnancy rates among 16-year-old girls had fallen by 20% in a trial of 104 schools.

Its advocates say A Pause promotes the message that other forms of physical intimacy are safer than full intercourse. "It teaches people assertiveness skills and that they should be only as intimate as they feel comfortable with," Tripp said.

- SAPA