THE government has set itself a tall order in seeking to halve the number of under-18 teenage pregnancies by the end of the next decade - not least because of the immensity of the problem, but also because of its complexity.

Yet there is no denying that it is right to try since the social costs, both to taxpayers and in the loss of opportunity to thousands of these young mothers and their children, are immense.

And Britain is carrying a heavy burden because of it as the teenage pregnancy rate of 90,000 a year - a third involving under-16s and only one in nine mothers being married - is the highest in western Europe and among the highest in the world.

But if there are all kinds of equally disturbing facts and figures to go with this state of affairs - among them, 90 per cent of these young mothers living on state benefits and a similar proportion deserted by their partners - perhaps the most worrying is why our country has seen the trend spiral when, as Tony Blair points out, the rate of teenage pregnancies has fallen throughout most of the rest of Europe.

There are evidently lessons to be learned from elsewhere.

But one does not have to look far, surely, for one of the most apparent factors in this baleful situation - that of moral decline. What has developed is a product of the breakdown of the family, of the collapse of marriage as a social institution - both in terms of eschewal of it and divorce rates spiralling to the highest by far in western Europe - and in sex being openly promoted, but with warnings about its consequences and responsibilities trailing way behind.

Yet if ours has undoubtedly become a permissive society, it has at the same time become a non-judgmental one.

Illegitimacy, pre-marital sex, unwed partnerships and single parenthood are no longer causes of shame or societal censure; they have become normal and even encouraged by the tax and welfare structure.

And this, surely, will be the most formidable obstacle to the government's efforts.

Indeed, the non-judgmental outlook is built into its approach to the problem.

Moralising will not get us anywhere, says health minister Tessa Jowell, despite evidence that a "more conservative attitude to sex" in American campaigns has helped to reduce teenage pregnancy rates in the USA.

It is being left, then, to a mixture of revamped sex education, contraception, targeting teenage fathers financially and hostels for teenage mothers, rather than automatic council housing.

They may well redress some of the situation, but these efforts, surely, will struggle like others have when they have no moral foundation and society itself condones the causes but is less happy with the consequences.

But if parents and even churches are wary of setting moral standards can the government be blamed for also failing to condemn?

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.