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Original poster

20% rise in abortions for under 14's

30 replies

cazboldy · 19/06/2008 19:05

I am crap at links, but heard this on the news on radio 4

I think it said that this year there has been a rise of about 2.5% overall, but 20% rise in those 14 and under

I was 14 when I fell pg with ds1, but even so I have no idea what can be done to prevent these unwanted pregnancies

OP posts:
Habbibu · 19/06/2008 19:13

According to radio discussion later, the number of unwanted pregnancies in this age group is decreasing, despite the fact that the rate of abortions is going up. So I guess that bit is good news, at least.

Original poster
cazboldy · 19/06/2008 19:20

so you mean the actual number of teenagers getting pg is decreasing?

OP posts:
Habbibu · 19/06/2008 19:29

Think that's how I understood it.

Flllight · 19/06/2008 19:34

So fewer are getting pregnant, but more that get pregnant are having abortions?

Habbibu · 19/06/2008 19:35

Yes, but the actual numbers are pretty small - I think it was an increase of 28 girls last year. Will try to check my facts!

Monkeytrousers · 19/06/2008 19:44

You need to make sure this isn't also a spike becasue of new measuring techniques.

StealthPolarBear · 19/06/2008 19:57

Yes I was going to say the actual figures could be tiny - so a 20% rise might just be a handful more, which is still very sad but yswim.

Monkeytrousers · 19/06/2008 20:02

I don't think it's sad. I honestly think, if the issue is about suffering then early abortion is the most humane and moral way to go. A woman's right to terminate a pregnancy is one of the cornerstones of civilsation, imho.

ChirpyGirl · 19/06/2008 20:03

It's so sad, IMO it's too difficult for them to get contraception. I remember when I was younger that you couldn't get condoms unless you went to teh family planning clinic and asked. which was held during the day in teh week.

Okay, I didn't have sex until I was 16, but if there were easier and cheaper ways of getting condoms than vending machines etc then it might help.

StealthPolarBear · 19/06/2008 20:16

i agree mt
but it's sad that it's necessary iyswim. i'm not saying it's sad compared to continuing a very much unwanted pregnancy, if it is unwanted.

StealthPolarBear · 19/06/2008 20:17

ChirpyGirl, many (most?) PCTs run a C Card scheme which provides free condoms to under 25s from a variety of locations.

Flashman · 19/06/2008 20:23

chirpy girl I thought that they were handing out contraception like candy these days??

Perhaps instead of talking about contraception we should teach them not to do it??

ChirpyGirl · 19/06/2008 20:32

ok, sorry, am showing my age then.
I agree we should teach them not to do it but there are always going to be some that still do and when I was younger it was these girls that got pregnant.
The whole thing is arse backwards, young girls dressing like slappers and bratz dolls means they are aware of their sexuality before their minds are mature enough to cope with it.

(IYSWIM, lack of sleep kicking in)

Monkeytrousers · 19/06/2008 20:35

ok

wasabipeanut · 19/06/2008 20:41

Yes my first reaction here is sadness as well whilst also believing passionately in a womans right to terminate a pregnancy if she so chooses.

It's all very difficult. Reading the papers this morning a lot of people were calling for better sex education but this is what we've been doing for years now and underage pregnancies don't seem to be reducing in number.

I'm not advocating a return to 1940's sex education - ie. none, but we won't get a different result if we carry on doing the same thing.

There is clearly no easy answer.

StealthPolarBear · 19/06/2008 20:44

Interesting point wasabi
I think the 'answer' is culture change which is not easy or quick

Original poster
cazboldy · 19/06/2008 20:48

that is the trouble - no one seems to have an answer

I was lucky

I had already been with my boyfriend for about 18 months, and we have gone on to get married and have 4 more children, so I was in a lasting relationship etcetc I just did everything a lot younger than I perhaps should have done

but most girls are not as lucky as this

I think we need to teach them to have some self respect

the trouble is that i think a lot of young girls believe that they have found "the one" and jump into bed with them

I had been with my dh for 7 months before we did anything sexual... I wanted to be sure I loved him, and that he loved me

This is what I wil try to teach my daughters

OP posts:
Monkeytrousers · 19/06/2008 20:54

Maybe its not the right kind of sex education, rather than the principle of sex educatiopn being wrong.

waffletrees · 20/06/2008 10:08

TBH - not all of these girls would have been willing participants.. No amount of education would help that.

margoandjerry · 20/06/2008 10:13

the precise number was 18 girls. 18 additional children not becoming mothers. I call that good news.

motherinferior · 20/06/2008 10:15

I agree - yes, if it's no rise in pregnancies and fewer very young women becoming mothers at 14, I have to say I think that is a very good thing.

TheDullWitch · 20/06/2008 10:34

Sex ed in schools isn't compulsary. The basic biological stuff is, but not relationships etc. That is up to the individual school. So it is very patchy whether young people discuss it at all.

Parents assume school is dealing with it, schools are told it is proper for parents to deal with it. Hence ignorance and teen pregnancy rates highest in Europe.

Original poster
cazboldy · 20/06/2008 18:56

are you sure margoandjerry? That seems awfully few considering the fuss they were making about it.......

if it was 18 more, that means that only 108 young girls had abortions.......that doesn't seem a lot for the whole country....

far too many, but not a lot iyswim....

OP posts:
Monkeytrousers · 20/06/2008 20:56

Relationsho ed, that would be good. You could go to uni and get a PhD in relationshops in order to teach! Would we trust it?

Monkeytrousers · 20/06/2008 20:56

I'd walk that exam