Cross-party inquiry into unwanted pregnancy: your views?

I think contraception is harder to get hold of for the younger generation. It certainly was when I was younger.

There are FPCs but in my town they generally don't advertise their services/opening hours very well, plus the only have one night for young teens. A 14 yo is unlikely to turn around to their mum and say "Sorry mum, I'm not doing Gymnastics tonight. I'm off to the FPC to stock up on contraception" They're also unlikely to want to go another night when it is open to all ages and they might bump into Great Aunty Nora while they're waiting to get their pill.

AFAIK our local FPC was subject to cuts. Certainly the building it used to be in has been knocked down and they're building a new housing development on the land instead. I have no idea if the service has moved elsewhere, if it has it was not widely publicised. I wouldn't know where to go if I wanted to access their services.

Condoms are expensive to buy in most shops and again young teens are likely to feel embarrassed about buying them and worried they'll be spotted buying them by a family member or neighbour.

They don't always realise that their GP is confidential, even when they are underage. And again there is the worry that they'll be found out.

And yes, condoms are "not cool" in the eyes of young males and they will pressure the girl not to use them.

FPCs need to be made more accessible and more widely publicised, especially for younger teens. Their services should be advertised in secondary schools and colleges, maybe even run FPCs or contraception services in schools once a week/fortnight/whatever.

Contraception needs to become "cool". The effects of not using it should be more widely publicised. Not just pregnancy but STDs and STIs and the long term implications of these.

Talking about sex with younger teens should be encouraged. Sex education in schools should be more in depth and start from a younger age. It should cover sex for pleasure as well as for family planning. Teens should be advised about peer pressure and how to avoid it. Educating both males and females about rape should be done from 13 or so. Teach young men that NO means NO, there are no excuses or ifs or buts and that peer pressure will be viewed as rape or sexual assault.

Nodding along to GetOrf and WhereYouLeftIt.

I've never had or wanted a termination, but from my second-hand perspective it seems to me that this from maybenow's post is pretty key - 'there was no way i could turn my thinking around to wanting a pregnancy'. The choice - the accessible, safe, non-stigmatised choice - has to be there.

The posts further up about the difficulty of people's economic circumstances, particularly the hugely burdensome cost of childcare, also had me nodding in agreement. I don't live in the UK any more. Where I am, state maternity pay runs at 67% of last net salary for 12 months, there is little or no obsession with homeowning and - this is vital - decent tenancy rights, making housing affordable in most places, and childcare is heavily state subsidised. I certainly couldn't have had my second child without these factors, and we would go under in the UK on what is a pretty decent income here. We are hoping for no. 3, and it would be completely unthinkable for us in a comparable situation in the UK.

That is a great idea himalaya. Or did you just invent the entire concept in order to roll out your knocking up joke?

I had no idea that contraception was so difficult to get hold of, I haven't used it for donkey's years. DD got hers sorted rather easily.

OK, here is an idea.

A lot of people on here and here are talking about the difficulty getting contraception where they live. GPs not providing comprehensive contraception, FPCs with very limited opening hours, long bus rides etc...

Maybe we could build up a map?

I am imagining a website where you put in the first bit of your postcode and then answer some questions about how satisfied you are with contraceptive services where you live,, where you go to GP/FPC etc, how long you have to wait for an appt, how far you have
to travel, how much choice is available etc... And it would build up a detailed colour coded map of our experience of contraception services and where the gaps are.

Anyone good at knocking this kind if thing up? (titter) MNTowers - could you nip down the road to The Guardian. They are good at this stuff - I bet they'd do it for you.

I had an unwanted pregnancy as a student - I used condoms but we were a bit tipsy and it tore, then i wanted MAP but it was a bank holiday so i didn't take it till about 48hrs had passed (days before they sold it in big supermarkets)

Contraception does fail. It's not 100%. And as i'd tried two types of contraception to avoid pregnancy there was no way i could turn my thinking around to wanting a pregnancy. Particularly as I was awfully terribly sick which is terrible if you don't even want to be pregnant. I had a termination, it was ok, not terrible and i've never regretted it.

I am.

guys, this is a cross-party inquiry. And for the record, there as many anti-abortionists (such as Frank Field) on the labour benches as there are on the other side.

and i've had an abortion, using contraception is much nicer - i don't think of it as a moral issue but -
It hurts. not as much as pregnancy and childbirth, but much much more than contraception.

maybe treat the question seriously instead of mucking about?

We wouldn't need it if they'd been Excused A Life Of Relentless Grimness

It's all about the terminology

How about Workfare for children over the age of, say, six, if their parents are on benefits?

Go abortion Go!

In fact, let's just kill them and simultaneously do something about the appalling over population.

And why does everyone care so much about abortion anyway?

We are grossly over populated

We murder far more people in wars

We kill other species already borned without a second thought

We all kill ourselves everyday with drugs, alcohol, fags, cars etc etc

Oh yes, good one boffy.

1. Sew up the orifices of the working class. Or anyone poor.

I think the working classes just need to stop having sex, Hully. Or tax it or something.

Ok, I know I haven't RTFT and I have already posted my random thoughts as they occurred...but just see if that stops me.

Women are having more abortions...because THEY CAN.

Why don't they contracept?

1. Contraception is generally unpleasant and/or intrusive

1. There isn't an open and strong enough culture around the glories of contraception (possibly linked to 1.). Public attitudes need a major shift like Keep Britain Tidy. eg Keep Britain Contracepted.

1. Start young. Stop all this stupid prudish churchy nonsense and tell kids like it is and bombard them with condoms.

1. Ban alcohol.

1. Somehow entirely change the psychological make-up of human beings so that they no longer think, "Oh, it'll be all right somehow by magic" (possibly a bit hard.)

Mcmooncup if you look at the article upthread it seems that part of the motivation is to stop anti abortionists seizing this agenda.

Actually, the more I think about this, the more suspicious it is. Why is there an emphasis in the OP on abortion. Abortion is the solution to unwanted pregnancy, that is the thing that actually stops unwanted pregnancies having a social impact in many varied ways.

So, is this inquiry just a platform for the pro-lifers to get their voices heard and create a guilty rhetoric for women.

Abortion seems a strange way to start a debate about reducing pregnancies. You need to be pregnant to have an abortion so thereby the debate and inquiry should only be focused on ways to reduce pregnancy period. or no period as the case may be, boom boom

So the Torries don't want us having abortions? But also don't want people claiming benefits if they can't afford to fully support their children?

And in answer to why do they not contracept (an interesting verb)

All contraception is really a bit vile- condoms (male and female), caps, coils, pills, depo provera...nothing very attractive about any of it.

yy to Hully

We still barely talk about sex to children without the titillated and embarrassed approach being present. That's where we start, not messing about with abortion laws and whipping up the moral debate.

here's my take on it

5 years ago, I'ld have said that I support other people's choice to have an abortion but I wouldn't ever have one

now?
I would have one if I became pregnant, what changed?
5 years ago we would be able to move up the property ladder, if not now then we'ld be farely sure it'ld happen soon. Now we're stuck in our first tiny home, we can't move even though we both work and have good credit, the rungs on the ladder are miles apart and jumping up one is so much less doable!
Saving is crap (rates!), plus our money left over to save is less than it would have been on 2 people in our careers 5 years ago. Our careers are progressing but so much slower than they would have in the past. And then there's the higher cost of living eating in to what we could have saved

We have 2 already, 5 years ago a third wouldn't have been a disaster, now it would be!

Of course we are very serious about contraception, but my GPs practice is all about the coil which I wont have and not keen on nuvoring which I'm hoping for, plus DH is worried about his request for a vasectomy being deamed unneccesary and a waste of NHS time when they could just pop me on high dose hormones (which make me worry about mine and other's safety when I'm on them)

I think its sad that as a person who wouldn't ever choose to have a termination I now definitely would! If there was more job and housing mobility I would not I would find a way!

Or ban alcohol.

yy women have always had abortions, since the dawn of time and herbal discoveries.

Make morning after pills available and free everywhere, much easier than stopping drunken unprotected sex.

And tell people better an abortion than an unwanted baby.

Fill schools with posters and condoms, make sex totally open and talked about and make contraception normalised and easily available. Stop the abstinence bollocks.

I agree with you, GetOrf.