This headline starts by stating that the rate of teenage pregnancy has almost halved in the last eight years, therefore I thought this would be a good place for me to start as well. The headline was written from 2015 and states that in this year the rate of conceptions of individuals under the age of 18 was 20,351 and the rate of conceptions in 2007 (eight year’s prior) was 42,988. The independent got their information from the office for national statistics, which is a very reliable source, more specifically from the registration of births and notification of abortions. I went onto the office for national statistics website and looked into the data for both 2015 and 2007 for this study and found that they did in fact match the ones stated by the Independents headline. However, the headline does state that it ‘nearly halved’ when really it dropped by over half being that it went from almost 42,988 to 20,351 (as half of 42,988 is 21,494). It could also be argued that the information coming from the registration of births and notification of abortion doesn’t include dark statistics such as the rare home abortions, births that aren’t registered and unknown miscarriages and therefore isn’t completely reliable.
Despite the reasons mentioned that could argue against this headline, I personally feel that this headline is not misleading as all of the statistics are correct and have been obtained from a reliable source. The headline is informative and gives a brief over view of what the story then moves on to discuss further and in more detail.
Link to article:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/teenage-pregnancy-rates-record-low-england-wales-fall-halve-last-seven-years-a7643416.html