The number of teenage mothers in Ireland fell steadily every year this decade until last year
The news that the 17-year-old daughter of vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is pregnant has given an extraordinary twist to the interminable soap opera that is this year's American presidential election.
Though the political classes, that is the Republican and Democratic leadership in the United States, have declared the subject as off-limits, the public and the media have other ideas.
There is even a school of thought which suggests that it should be an election issue given that Governor Palin's own Republican Party has championed abstinence-only programmes which have proved not to be successful in bringing down rates of teenage pregnancy in the United States.
Irrespective of the politics involved, it is a compelling human interest story and has turned the conventional wisdom about teenage pregnancy on its head.
Though in theory any sexually active teenage girl can get pregnant, it is most associated with the disadvantaged, with school drop-outs and with "children having children" as one commentator puts it.
The British government was so worried about the relationship between teenage parenthood and social disadvantage that the former prime minister Tony Blair called for a "new moral purpose" and proposed a state-mentoring programme for teenage mothers from poor backgrounds.
However, the realisation that an ostensibly loving family like the Palins with high-achieving parents can also have a teenage pregnancy has brought the issue from the margins into the mainstream.
"There is a strong correlation between social disadvantage and teenage pregnancies, but in our opinion it can happen to anybody regardless of socio-economic background," says Margaret Morris, the co-ordinator of the TeenParents Support Programme (TPSP) which advises both teenagers and their parents on how to deal with teenage pregnancies. The TPSP has 11 branches across the State.
"It can be more difficult and a greater crisis for those who come from better-off backgrounds because they may already have mapped out an educational route and a vocational route for themselves," she says.
She believes the crisis of teenage pregnancies will be compounded if the individuals involved, both the father and the mother, are not allowed to fulfil their potential as teenagers.
"If you become a parent very early in life and you don't get an opportunity to complete your own development, you are at a high risk of becoming a long-term recipient of social welfare and also ending up in long-term poverty and so do the children involved. People need to be supported to complete their education."
The realisation that Barack Obama, himself the son of a teenage mother, could become the next president of the United States demonstrates that teenage parenthood, if handled properly, does not have to lead to a life of under-privilege for teenage parent or child.
"Most teenagers are marvellous parents. Because of their youth, they don't worry as much as older parents, they take parenthood in their stride and they have energy and they are more optimistic. They can achieve a lot with help," says Morris.
The number of teenage mothers in Ireland fell steadily in every year this decade until last year. In 1999 there were 3,301 teenage births out of an overall total of 53,924, giving a rate of 61 per 1,000, higher than the European average.
Last year, though the numbers increased by about 102 to 2,464, it followed a veritable baby boom with 70,640 new babies being born, giving an average rate of 34 per 1,000.
The decrease is being attributed to compulsory sex education - the social, personal and health education (SPHE) curriculum which has been in operation since 2003 and which has had a tangible impact.
The Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) believes that its decision to close its services to medical card holders in the Dublin area because of a lack of funding by the HSE will undo much of the good work that has been done in recent years to stop the increase in the number of crisis pregnancies.
"There is political consensus on the need to prevent crisis pregnancies and reduce the number of women who access abortion services. This Government has committed itself to the task of reducing crisis pregnancy. However, the lack of funding for an important prevention service contradicts this," says IFPA chief executive Niall Behan.
"The suspension of our services may have serious consequences for these clients in their choice of contraception. It may also lead to an increase in crisis pregnancy."
Caroline Spillane, the head of the Crisis Pregnancy Agency (CPA), says that compulsory sex education does not let parents off the hook, and their role is vital in ensuring that their children have a mature attitude to sex.
The CPA says it funds support not just for teenagers who get pregnant, but also for their parents. The shock and trauma of a teenage pregnancy can often be visited on the parents too who experience much of the responsibilities but little of the sympathies of those involved.
Spillane believes it is important for prospective grandparents to get counselling if they need it.
"When you are a parent, you sometimes see your children as still children. In that case, it is often difficult to talk to the people you usually talk to, so it is important to speak to a counsellor or somebody outside the family circle," she says.
Last year the CPA published You Can Talk To Me, a DVD and booklet for parents who want to talk to their children about sex education, an extraordinarily difficult thing for many of them to do.
It quoted research from the Irish Study of Sexual Health and Relationships (ISSHR), which found that, while 92 per cent of people think that young people should get sex education, in reality only 21 per cent of men and 38 per cent of women received it in the home.
Spillane believes that there are tried and tested ways of helping to avoid teenage pregnancies and the most important one is for parents not to absent themselves from sex education.
"If you have teenagers, it is important to talk to them, not just once but continually. It is solidly backed up with research that parents who communicate with their children will be better able to avoid negative outcomes.
"Teenagers want parents to talk to them about sex education. Parents have an important role in being 'myth busters'. The influence of the peer group is very strong and parents can act as a counterweight to that," she says.
