Official figures to be published next week will show the conception rate among under-18s is on the rise after dropping for several years. They will reinforce England’s position as the teenage pregnancy capital of Europe, with about 40 in every 1,000 schoolgirls becoming pregnant. Half of them go on to have abortions. Official figures to be published next week will show the conception rate among under-18s is on the rise after dropping for several years.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Teenagers who officially pledge to save sex for marriage may be no more likely than their peers to do so — but they may be less likely to take precautions during sex, a new study suggests. The findings, published in the journal Pediatrics, are based on a comparison of so-called virginity pledgers and non-pledging teens from similar backgrounds. Read more.

Dr. Wilf Steinberg describes it as the ‘unicorn theory’. Many teens believe a woman gets pregnant only if they have an orgasm. Some others believe that first-time sex doesn’t lead to pregnancy. The gynecologist and assistant professor, department of obstetric and gynaecology at the University of Toronto believes there’s a lot of misinformation with teens and even older women. Some women over 40 believe their age alone ensures that they won’t get pregnant. Some 50% of pregnancies in Canada are unintended and about half of these occur to women who …

NEW YORK (AP) — A new rule granting sweeping protection to a broad range of health workers who won’t provide abortions and other care could set up the first big reproductive rights fight of the Obama era.
Fiery demonstrations, abortion clinic bombings and headline-grabbing killings of doctors largely faded from the U.S. public consciousness in the last decade, and mainstream anti-abortion groups focused on limiting access to the practice legislatively under a supportive President George W. Bush. Read more.

With this troubling economy looming over us, it seems nothing is safe from the choking grasp of a worldwide marketplace in tailspin. Even sex can’t escape the pattern. More and more people are finding the rising cost in birth control distressing, putting a strain on people’s sex lives, maybe even halting them. For students at Eastern, this isn’t much of a problem. Health Service routinely offers condoms at extremely low prices, encouraging safe sexual practices without burning a hole in students’ pockets.
But what about other people?
Students take this readily available …