ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of some of the alternative ways of approaching the issue of early pregnancy, and why it is a worthwhile endeavour to attempt. According to the UNICEF analysis, when age of marriage and the availability of contraception started to change in the 1960s, some countries adapted well to these changes and some did not. Those that did so experienced reductions in early childbearing; some primarily through increases in abortion proportions (the Nordic pattern) and some through reducing conception rates. Basically, to reduce rates of teenage pregnancy, the levels of sexual activity need to be reduced, and/or the efficient usage of contraception by sexually active teenagers needs to be increased. Since all young people in richer countries attend school up to the age of at least 16 years (or at least should do), great emphasis has been placed on the delivery of school-based sex education, albeit called by different names in different places.
