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 just like to put my hand up here to say that I've had 2 abortions and don't feel ANY regret about either of them. They were absolutely the right thing to do for me.

Slug, that's awful.

I think we don't half have double standards in this country: on the one hand we're sexualising children earlier and earlier and on the other we have some prim and prudish attitudes towards sex and contraception.

I'd love to know what some real statisticians make of the reason behind the numbers. I suspect that until one of them posts we're all just wildly guessing at any reasons and arguing based on these guesses which may well be a load of crap.

there is not an ounce of smugness sophable you get me wrong
Neither am i being judgemental but you seem to be encouraging a nanny state mentality. Humans are high functioning intellectual beings who know what they are doing

Sexually mature people who are aware of the results of their behaviour. 'Handing out free condoms in nightclubs' Why?
If you are happy to risk STD's then why not encourage pill taking. Take a condm with you - you are a big girl now...

Adoption is not the answer and it equates to such a tiny part of this debate.
The probem is prevention

You can bet your life that if HIV reached pandemic proportions in the UK that these people would sit up and take note. Until their own life or quality of life becomes an issue - this 'fingers crossed' mentality will prevail

Mog, I don't think that's what Slug meant so you're either wilfully misinterpreting her or you misread her post. She was saying that it would be wrong for a dr to refuse to carry out a foot operation so why should he/she refuse to refer a woman for an abortion?
But I'm sure Slug will point that out herself.

Not an otter sums it up rightly.

also ...

"As to why a doctor should go against his moral beliefs - perhaps because he is paid by the NHS to provide a service. Picking and choosing which services he refers to based on morality is denying people access to those very services they have paid for via their taxes. If he couldn't face doing that then he was in the wrong job. "

Plenty of plastic surgeons will not do certain procedures as they think it is wrong, it is their choice. I think it is right GPs can refuse referal for abortions, you can change your GP in a matter of one simple phone call. You can't force someone to do what is against the ir beliefs.

Thank you WWW, just slow on the refresh button at the moment

I still don't understand why so many people think I should feel guilty for having a termination when all other means of contraception failed.

That sort of plastic surgery is not avaliable on the NHS Qwootie. And if a patient meets the clinical criteria, the proceedure is carried out.

You don't need two doctors to agree to that either.

Question for all of you who are anti abortion - what do you think should happen if contraception fails? Do you think women should be forced to have babies they don't want? Because the ONLY 100% effective contraception is abstention. So do you think we should do that too/instead?

'the hideous numbers of babies being aborted shows that women in this country have the wrong attitude towards sex and contraception' - I don't see how you can come to that conclusion just from the figures. Perhaps this Jan was an unusual month.

i am unsure why we are arguing about how difficult it is to get an abortion - patently it is not too difficult

Qwootie, but doctors can force women to have unwanted babies because that is their belief. Who is the adult here? Doctors are treating women like children uncapable of making decisions for themselves.

(Try changing doctors round my way. They make you wait a month if you are lucky.)

Oh this is all so far from the OP!

All I was saying was that contraception IS freely available, what they say in that article isn't true.

You know I didn't even know you could get an abortion on the nhs

What are the critera?

www - if contraception fails get the MAP - i know fro my own ( different but relevant) experience that a tablet can be taken to end a pregnancy long after 72 hours...i may be wrong

Every woman in this discussion who has admitted to an abortion has had one as a result of contraceptive failure. Yet still the patronising attitudes about feckless girls who can't manage to work out how to put on a condom surfaces.

NHS criteria for abortion

interestingly slug, it says that doctors can refuse to refer you for an abortion based on their own beliefs but they have to recommend another doctor.

Obviously if all else fails then abortion is the next option if you don't want a child (IMO)

But I just don't believe that all these are failed contraception

MAP doesn't always work

I, for one, didn't even realise I was pregnant till I was around 6-8 weeks gone and I certainly wasn't young or feckless.

i dont get the failed contraception argument....
Not on that scale

As i said earlier - marie Stopes saw 6000 women in january who had either - failed contraceptive pill, broken condoms, failed morning after pill ....

Mr Pfizer would not be where he is today if his drug trials had been this ineffective

footinslug
that doesn't tell you the criteria just that they have to have been met!

but it happens NAO! I was on the pill when I fell pregnant the first time (hence why I didn't realise for so long) and had actually fallen pregnant on it once before as well.

It's easy to get pregnant on the pill and not realise because you carry on taking it and quite often get a sort of withdrawal bleed in that week where you would get your period (so are none the wiser as to the pregnancy).

Slug you refer to 'all other methods of contraception failing' so do you regard abortion as a method of contraception then?

Those of you who agree with abortion but are concerned with the rising rate, is it because of the expense incurred? the time??

I understand why those opposed to abortion are concerned, but as I said earlier, if there is nothing wrong with abortion, why is the rsing rates of abrtion a concern. Unless it's the money?

CD, it's in the bits on the right (when should it be done, why is it necessary)

BROOK ADVISORY WEB PAGE

The abortion pill is a form of abortion available to women who are under 9 weeks pregnant. The woman will be given a pill to swallow and 36 to 48 hours later a tablet will be placed in her vagina. These two drugs will end most early pregnancies within the following four hours. A minimum of 2 visits to a hospital or clinic are involved.

those may be counted in the abortion figures though

Well partly because it isn't good to have unnecessary surgery. My dh is a clinical negligence lawyer and does quite a lot of work on behalf of one of the big private abortionists and some of the cases he gets are quite frankly horrific.

Also because it just doesn't make sense, we have more sex education, more availability of contraception etc than ever before.

As several people have said, maybe it is just a wider acceptance of abortion that is changing the figures.