Posted on 03/19/2002 8:22:55 PM PST by nickcarraway
Abortions rise in under-age sex crisis
UK STUDY FINDS SEX ED AND MORNING AFTER PILLS ENCOURAGE PROMISCUITY
Morning-after pill, lessons in family planning and early puberty are all blamed for soaring pregnancies
Kamal Ahmed, political editor
Sunday March 17, 2002
The Observer
The number of under-age abortions has risen by more than a fifth in the past 10 years, fuelling fears that the greater availability of sex education and the morning- after pill is encouraging young people to have unprotected sex.
Figures compiled by the Office of National Statistics for 2000 reveal that 4,382 girls under the age of 16 had abortions, up 200 on the year before. The same figure for 1992, the first of the last Conservative Government, was 3,510. There has been a rise of 20 per cent since then.
Experts in teenage pregnancy and abortion say poorly defined sex education policies and the Government's decision to allow the morning-after pill to be freely available at chemists is increasing the awareness of sex and leading to more unwanted pregnancies.
Some argue that because sex is illegal under the age of 16 the official figures reveal only a small part of the problem. 'It is clear that providing more family planning clinics, far from having the effect of reducing conception rates, has actually led to an increase,' said Dr David Paton, a leading expert on teenage fertility at the University of Nottingham.
'The availability of the morning-after pill seems to be encouraging risky behaviour. It appears that if people have access to family planning advice they think they automatically have a lower risk of pregnancy.'
There have also been scientific studies that suggest children are reaching puberty earlier and are experimenting with sex at younger ages.
The figures show an increase across all age groups. The number of under-14s conceiving and then having abortions rose to 234 in 2000, from 216 in 1992. The figure fell to 203 in 1993. The number of under-15s and under-16s having abortions also rose.
The increase in abortions will undermine government policy, which is aimed at reducing pregnancies and abortions among the under-18s by 50 per cent by 2010. The Government said that, by increasing family planning advice, teenagers would be encouraged to think about the issues and would be less likely to have underage sex.
'It is a failed policy, looking at all the available evidence,' Paton said. 'Basically, you are sending out mixed messages. On the one hand, sex under the age of 16 is illegal; on the other, you are giving information which says, "Well, if you are going to do it, here's how you go about it".'
Paton said it was often the poor and those lacking education skills who suffered early pregnancies, affecting their chances of improving their economic status.
Only one year has seen a higher number of abortions since the Government started collecting regional figures in England and Wales in 1989. In 1998, 4,429 teenagers under the age of 16 had abortions at NHS hospitals, a record. A spokesman for the Family Planning Association said that figure was 'unusually high' because of a health scare over the use of the pill the year before. 'That always leads to an increase in pregnancies,' she said.
he latest figures, compiled for the Conservative MP Andrew Turner, strengthen the case of those who argue that the present government policy could lead to a long-term increase in teenage pregnancies and abortions.
In 1999 a study by Gerald Oettinger in the Journal of Political Economy said increased use of family planning information did not lead to a decrease in unwanted pregnancies. It said that giving more information had a positive effect on the sexual activity of teenage boys.
Another study, published by the British Medical Journal in 2000, came to a similar conclusion. It found that young people who were prescribed the morning-after pill were much more likely to have abortions. 'These figures must be of concern to all those who take an interest in child welfare,' Turner said.
In the United States, some states have reversed years of 'progressive' sex education policy and started 'abstinence projects', where the main thrust of teaching is not to have sex until the age of 16 or until achieving a long-term, stable relationship.
* Teenagers will be able to get free supplies of the morning-after pill from Tesco's in a pilot scheme in north Somerset aimed at reducing teenage pregnancies. The move was yesterday attacked by pro-life groups who called for a boycott of the Tesco chain.
kamal.ahmed@observer.co.uk
Um, DUH!
This is so sad.
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