Abortion rate highest ever - I'm sorry I just don't buy the reason suggested for this...

[CountessDracula]

"But pregnancy advice groups said the figures probably reflected poor access to contraceptive services"

What utter tosh

You can buy condoms in many loos in clubs and pubs. In any chemist or 24hour shop.

You have access to family planning clinics and doctors with free contraception

You can buy the morning after pill over the counter ffs

Shouldn't people take a bit more responsibility and get themselves to these places and get some bloody contraception?

OK so if this discussion is not about abortion per se but its "misuse" then what do the people fulminating against its misuse propose should be done about it?

Because the only thing you can do that I can see to stop "misuse" in our current society, is to restrict availability. Unless I'm missing something.

reconditioning society? but I don't think that can be done in a positive way....so...I would not have the answer to that, lol!

Sorry for diving in here, haven't got time to read the entire thread.

I was at a community development meeting and was shocked at the attitude of one member to the concept of discussing sexual health with young adults. Rather blinkered to be honest.

I live in an area where teen pregnancies have always been high. The upshot of the meeting is that it is no necessairly the issue of access/availability of contraception but the fact that many simply are unaware of the available options until it's way way too late.

Sex education is not just about the mechanics but a hell of a lot to do with the emotional side of things, self respect and the like.

But how we give holistic sex ed before we end up with having to see abortion as the only option is a tough one

An eight week foetus is roughly the size of a 5p piece. 60% of abortions are done at less than 10 weeks. 88% by 13 weeks. of 185,000 terminations, 110 were carried out after 24 weeks, and none of would have been purely for reasons of 'choice'. It would be illegal. They are carried out because of problems with the baby.

The peak ages for abortion are 18-24 btw.

What we need to do is to make sure that our your people, and in fact I mostly mean our young women, are confident enough to make sure that they can use contraception.

There is lots of sex education that covered the different types of contraception and how to get them. We live in a society where it is very easy to get hold of condoms, they sell them in spuermarkets, they are no longer the preserve of the 'Something for the weekend' barber shop.

But althouh contraception is available we are not raising out children to be mature and confident enough to use it. We still see girls scared to go on the pill because they think that 'planning' to have sex makes them a slut. We also have young women so unsure of their own worth that they can't insist that their partner uses a condom.

We have 21st centuary avaiability of contraception and 1950 attitudes to using it.

What we need to do is to raise the levels of confidence and self worth in our young women

Yes, and raise our sons to be more responsible, both for ensuring that sex happens with contraception if they don't want a baby, for discussing with partners what they would do if they accidentally made a baby together, and that they value relationships with women. It would be good if fewer men thought they were 19 at 35 as well, IMO.

here are the stats (from lower down the thread)

peak age was 20-24 for 2005

Key facts
In 2005, for women resident in England and Wales:

the total number of abortions was 186,400, compared with 185,700 in 2004, a rise of 0.4%
the age-standardised abortion rate was 17.8 per 1,000 resident women aged 15-44, the same as in 2004
the abortion rate was highest, at 32.0 per 1,000, for women in the 20-24 age group
the under-16 abortion rate was 3.7 and the under-18 rate was 17.8 per 1,000 women, both the same as in 2004.
84% of abortions were funded by the NHS; of these, just over half (52%) took place in the independent sector under NHS contract
89% of abortions were carried out at under 13 weeks gestation; 67% were at under 10 weeks
medical abortions accounted for 24% of the total compared with 19% in 2004
1,900 abortions (1%) were under ground E, risk that the child would be born handicapped
Non-residents:

in 2005 there were 7,900 abortions for non-residents carried out in hospitals and clinics in England and Wales (8,800 in 2004)

Glad to see the introduction of the abortion pill is making early abortion more common.

Agree with you re the boys

Raising expectations of life in young people is, I'm sure, the key.

Totally Agree MB

I think if men were more willing to step up to the plate and be a father, more women would be willing to be mothers tbh.

I just wanted to say well done to Paula for daring to be a lone voice against the general consensus on this thread. I admire her conviction, and was dismayed at the contemptous way in which her views were at times treated.

AS I said earlier I hang back from expressing my true feelings on this issue in RL, for fear of giving offence and swimmimg against the tide, and I even found myself lurking on this thread and doing the same.

Paula had the courage of her convictions to stand up for what she believed and I think whther you agree with her or not that is admirable.

I wonder how many other silent supporters such as me she really has?

Aloha, do you work in the field, that you can be that sure that very late terminations are always done for medical reason? Or actually yes, maybe they are all, but then medical reasons can meet a lot, couldn't they.Doesn't mean, necessarily that a baby would be severely handicapped or that it's a life or death situation. It can mean that parents just changed their mind about wanting that handicapped Baby afterall...(which is why I say, it is still part of the choice thing, but of course is probably a even more difficult choice then abortions are, anyway.

Oh, and I agree, us morthers of sons defiantely have the job to raise them in such way that they will take responsibility, and don't just seee the girl for the fun part and then run as far as they like.
However, where do we then stand when the man wants the Baby and the woman doesn't....hm....

Martianbishop you have hit the nail so so firmly on the head with your comment

'We have 21st centuary avaiability of contraception and 1950 attitudes to using it. '

Wasn't there a late abortiob foe a harelip?

Yes it's a medical reason....

I am behind Paula 100% and not really too scared to say it. Doesn't mean I would think bad of anyone having one, or not support anyone having one if there was nothing I could do, but I do not feel it is right.

Yes that pretty much sums up where I am with it Quootie.

No I don't work in teh field. I'm a journalist. But the law says abortion up to term is legal if: 'there is a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped'.
Of all the abortion carried out in England and Wales 1996 (177,225) 653 were carried out at 23 or 24 weeks and only 92 at 25 weeks or over.

Cleft palate is often part of absolutely catastrophic syndromes incompatible with life.
Do YOU want to live in a society where men can force women to have babies? Where bitter, vengeful, violent men can force women to bear children for them? What about when the first victim of forced childbearing dies as a result?

My God, can you even being to imagine the psychological damage you would inflict on women!

I'm with Aloha and Caligula on this, absolutely.

Thanks Smiley

Is Cleft Palate really catastophic? You know in most cases it is completely repairable.

"Do YOU want to live in a society where men can force women to have babies? Where bitter, vengeful, violent men can force women to bear children for them? What about when the first victim of forced childbearing dies as a result? "

Where is this coming from? How ould men be forcing women to have children? What bitter, vengeful, violent men are you talking about?