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?

I'd venture a guess that the majority of Marie Stopes patients are not young teens.

agree to a point wannabe..but some women do have more than one contraceptive failure and the MAP is not 100 % ether

i think when you have used contraception and it has failed and the MAP and it has failed, then abortion is the next step. and possibly more than once.

I also think its because people use abortion as contraception. They make it so easy to get one these days. There is way to much contraception choices around these days for there to be abortion rates this high. People are just being reckless. Its so sad.

well my youngest sis (late 20s) and some of her friends have definitely used/view abortion as the next step in contraception

normally the MAP hasn't worked and then abortion is the next step - in fact, one of her friends has had 2.

At least they are available and easily accessible in this country.

It is sad

Everyone I know who has had an abortion has been adversely affected by it.

So I wonder why there are more and more. Maybe because people don't talk about how much it affects them?
(I do realise that it doesn't affect some people, well not immediately anyway)

Hi,

I've not read the whole thread, so apologies if its been brought up already, but do the stats indicate the age of women having these abortions?

Most of the posts here seem to discuss school age people/young people as the only ones having abortions....

also wouldn't these stats include abortions where the woman decided to abort due to medical reasons - as opposed to apparent 'mere stupidity' as implied by a number of posts?

could the rise in numbers then also come from better screening and changes in attitudes about abortions on medical grounds?

what do you all think?

Oh I agree
it is very good that they are available and that you have the choice

I just don't understand why they are getting more and more common

that's true as well, kate, especially now as some genetic screening can be carried out earlier and earlier in pregnancy.

"So the only other non-hormonal option is the copper coil - which works by preventing implanation" It's not true to say that Expat.

But I agree that choices of contraception for women in their 30s and above are limiting.

i have got pregnant twice whilst being on the pill, so was actually being responsible not a feckless adult!!! 1st time had an abortion as i was 18 and it was my first week at university, second time i had my gorgeous boy. Than god I had the choice. TBH I think abortion rates are higher because mre women feel like they dont HAVE to have children. Married women wth kids already as well, who before maybe would have had another child even if they didnt really want it.

I think as women we should be supportive of anything that gives us more choice and control over our own bodies

(CD - Jeremy Kyle, ITV, on between Lorraine Kelly and Phil and Fern...)

Hm, maybe the message has to be, get regular contraception (pill/coil/implant/...the list is so endless)to reduce risk of pg, and condoms to reduce std's...i.e. double protection, rather then relying just on one method, which can be, depending on the knowledge of the people involved, rather unreliable.Especially as drink is involved often and well, people just don't think clear.
But agree, that the acceptance of Abortions may have somehting to do with it, it is being use as a contraceptive method by to many people. I am not against abortion, but I do believe that it is often misused.
Maybe the sex education should raise more awareness of all the possible std's and their effects, longterm and shortterm.

Well, that's why I didn't say that, Ader. I said there was also sterilisation, condoms and - if they are to be had, the diaphragm and cervical cap.

Playing the clever editor only works when you can hide the entire transcript.

The copper coil works by preventing implantation. A GYN told me this. This is why I ruled it out for me.

My contraceptive choices now are so limited (far more so than when I was a teenager) that I'm basically left with condoms as the only option.

I don't think there are enough options for 35+ or people who develop problems with hormonal contraception (a hell of a lot of people).

Countess Dracula,

I don't think there is enough counselling or information on the adverse effects of abortion.

People just think 'oh, you just have an abortion' - there is not very much information on what it actually involves procedurally, and how it can impact you psychologically.

Perhaps there is a reluctance to do this by some groups as they don't want to be seen as trying to put women off ie, being anti-abortion??

maybe?

My FPC no longer offers the cervical cap.

Another poster pointed out that the diaphragm is getting harder to source because the spermacide used with it is having its production cut and because it requires a skilled fitter.

I was lucky in that sense.

But I cannot use progesten-based contraception.

It caused terrible side effects in me. The worst being exacerbating my PND to the point where I felt suicidal again.

After getting a panicked text from a male friend who wanted to know about the MAP because of a condom mishap, I had a conversation about it with a group of female friends.

All in their 30s, all sexually active, all well educated - none of them knew you could buy it over the counter now, let alone get it in advance just in case.

Emergency contraception is still little talked about and there is considerable pressure not to publicise it in case teenagers think they could use it instead of condoms (remember the moral outrage when it became available without prescription?).

I'm sorry, I genuinely don't believe that anyone (or anyone with an ounce of common sense) uses abortion as their contraceptive method of choice. There is however a culture of it-won't-happen-to-me, and even when it's happened once you get people who still believe this, crazy as that is.

i hate the pill, it turns me into the devil and makes me feel awful so now have to use condoms which i also dislike, good job we dont have sex very often

Sorry - I meant the bit about an IUD working by preventing implantation is a myth.

have to say im with sophable on this one... there is much simplification, sweeping generalisation and look down your nose judgmentalism going on here...

ok CD, your original point that it is actually accessible is valid, but i think the whole question of why people are not using it is FAR more complicated than any of the posts on here have come even close to suggesting. imo.

but im still your frind too

So how bad is it to take the pill when you are over 35 with no other contraindications than being a bit long in the tooth?

The mini-pill made me break out in acne cysts so bad, I am permanently scarred.

And the depression and mood swings. OH MAN!

Dr. ruled out Depo and hte implant for me b/c of my depression.

Can't use the combined Pill as over 35 w/strong history of heart disease and hypertension.

Luckily we're not a very fertile couple. But I do have a diaphragm.

You know CD, I think you've never really heard a woman say she's not bothered by her abortion because we are supposed to be affected by them.

There is loads and loads of propaganda out there about how damaging they are psychologically, how horrible they are and how they are the contraception of last choice. So if you've had one (or 2 or 3) and you are not particularly bothered by the experience, what sort of person does that make you? Heartless? Or just normal and not realising it?

Our big guilty secret used to be that we had had an abortion. Nowdays the guilty secret is we are not affected by them. I only discovered this when I told a close friend about mine. She admitted she had had 2 and had been equally unaffected. I've since discovered lots of women who are slightly ashamed to admit that there were no psychological after affects.

We're not supposed to feel guilty about taking the MAP, so in what way is an abortion significantly different? Is it because instead of the possibility of conception, the event actually has happened?

guide to options and reasons here bozza

Bozza, I think as long as you are healthy and non-smoking, you can take the pill as long as you like.

I think the problem is that as you get older, you tend to suffer from problems that may affect you being able to take the pill (like migraines, bad varicose veins, problems reacting to the hormones). Without any of those sort of problems, you can carry on taking it.