Teenage Abortion Rates Soar To Horrifying Levels

It is surprising how the present day world is seeing a drastic and baffling, upward trend in the number of teen abortions. For young girls getting pregnant and aborting it later is a choice that seems not long to make. With 84 children undergoing abortions every week in Wales and England as per 2007 figures, one is left agape, thinking of where the ‘gen–next’ is heading.

Not only this, the figures also show that three out of these 84 kids were below 14 years of age. Unbelievable yet- hurtingly true! The abortion rates over the years are rising the fastest in young girls, some of them barely teenagers.

Where on one end the abortion rates in England and Wales, saw a total of 2.5% rise, settling at 198,499 abortions a year, it’s infact, the steep rise in under-16 abortion rates, which went up 10 percent and worse still those of under -14s, horrifically jumping up 21%, which are proving to be alarming.

Such high abortion rates amongst teens have managed to throw muck in the face of all contraception, family planning and sex education plans of the government, school authorities and even parents.

The result is a large scale rethink on various steps that need to be taken to prevent such happenings. However, not far behind is the anti- abortion brigade with its allegations on the government for its lackadaisical attitude towards the issue, as the pleas to cut down the upper limit for abortion from 24 weeks to 22 weeks had fallen on deaf ears last month, in the House of Commons.

This statement from a Home Counties GP very clearly reflects the situation: "From what I see, there is a lot more spontaneous sex going on and these women are unprepared. Abortion is now on demand; all you need is a signature on a bit of paper."

Here’s some important data from the Office for National Statistics –
• Teen pregnancies in the last 10 years up to 2006 have seen a fall from-8,900 to 7,800.
• But at the same time out of these pregnancies, an increased number of the same ended in abortions with the rates rising to 60 percent from the earlier 49%.
• Maximum abortion rates are seen in the age group of 20-24, with teens and late twenties not far behind. However the rate slumps down sharply after 30.

The Labour MP Claire Curtis Thomas, of the All-Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group, said: "These figures show that, far from further liberalizing the law, there is a real need to tighten it. The number of abortions is truly horrifying."

The Tory MP Nadine Dorries added: "Teenagers have never had so much sex education taught so badly, with almost no access to help when they need it most."

In some countries teenage abortion requires state as well as parental approval, while in others there has to be a 24 hr waiting period even after permission is granted.

This is so because other than the well known physical side effects seen in some teenage abortion cases, there are a large number of psychological ramifications too attached to it.

Some of the commonly found ones are – developing suicidal tendencies, self harming behavior and indulgence in drugs and alcohol all resulting from a later feeling of guilt and an over pronounced depressiondefine. Also younger girls /teens are found to cope up very poorly with abortions as compared to their more mature counterparts.

Thinking of teens somewhere entering pregnancy pacts and else where, indulging in high school sex and drugs; to those who don’t bat an eyelid before indulging in acts of violence and murder, to yet again, these young girls for whom getting pregnant and getting rid of it, is all a child’s play, one is left wondering if it’s a generation loose on conscience or a generation gone awry all together.

The blame game is easy to play, the missing links are hard to find, but, most important is the need to pinpoint the problem and where it is springing from – soon! Before it’s too late.