The Taipei Association for the Promotion of Women's Rights stressed at a press conference on Sunday that practical sex education should be further promoted in schools to prevent unexpected pregnancies among teens and to teach students how to deal with an unwanted pregnancy, adding that boys should not be ignored in the important topic.

While Taiwan's birth rate for women at childbearing age has dropped to 0.91 percent last year, the birth rate among teenage girls aged 15 to 19 has still remained high.

According to official statistics, in 2002 the birth rate for young females aged 15 to 19 in Taiwan was highest among developed Asian countries at 1.295 percent, considerably higher than the teenage birth rates of 0.4 percent in Japan, 0.28 percent in South Korea and 0.8 percent in Singapore.

The teenage birth rate on the island dropped to 0.97 percent in 2004, but the figure is still higher than the birth rates for teenage girls in Japan, South Korea and Singapore, the Ministry of the Interior' latest statistics show.

Official statistics further pointed out that the number of babies young girls under the age of 19 gave birth to in 2004 totaled 7,626, accounting for 3.52 percent of all babies born in 2004. The Department of Health's data even showed that those at the age of 15 to 19 gave birth to around 16,000 babies per year on average and that two-third of the pregnancies were unplanned.

As unplanned teenage pregnancy, teenage abortion and teenage birth rate have become serious health problems in Taiwan, the association released a book to spotlight the issues relating to unplanned pregnancies among teenage girls.

Lee Chao-huan, the director-general of the association, said despite the alarming figures, official statistics do not reflect the magnitude of the problem, and the actual figures are probably much worse.

She pointed out that although surveys show 70 percent of parents think their children will tell them if they had gotten pregnant, almost all teenagers turn to friends or teachers for help rather than their own parents.

Lee further stressed that an important component of sex education is finding qualified educators and teaching materials. To address this problem, Lee said her association has invited sex education experts, student groups, social workers and teachers assisted by doctors and lawyers to complete a book on sex education.

The main topics in the book include teaching students how to avoid unexpected pregnancies, how to face such problems and how to seek medical and legal help for unwanted pregnancies.

Lee also said that boys are frequently ignored when they should be taught the importance of preventing their partners from getting pregnant and their legal responsibilities to pregnant partners and sharing the burden of their partners' pregnancy.

According to the foundation, the principle of avoiding sex before marriage will not be the main point in the new book; the soon-to-be-published book will instead focus on how to avoid pregnancy and the introduction of contraceptives such as standard condoms and general information on other available forms of contraception.

Lee said rather than telling students that unmarried pregnancy is a sin, sex education should emphasize safe and responsible sex to prevent the main problem -- unwanted pregnancies.

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