So why is the abortion rate in England and Wales rising year after year to the point that Britain will soon become the abortion capital of the world?
This is just one of the issues being discussed at today's Future of Abortion conference in central London.
Latest
figures from the DoH have revealed that 193,700 abortions were carried
out in 2007. A 2.5 per cent increase in the numbers seen in 2006. While the under-16 abortion rate has increased from 4.4 per 1,000 in 2007 to 3.9 per 1,000 in 2006.
An article in the Independent last week suggests that experts are ‘baffled' by the rising trend.
But I have yet to see any experts wandering around the conference hall scratching their heads and looking perplexed.
In fact the answer, according to Ann Furedi, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), is very simple.
‘People who do not want to have children are having sex.'
People
in England want to have good, exciting, risky sex, be it in the back of
a car or in the stationery cupboard at work, although this sort of
thing does not go on at BPAS, stressed Ms Furedi.
So
it appears that the best way to reduce abortion rates is to educate
people so that they stop having risky sex and use contraception.
It
is welcome news then that the DoH has announced that it will spend £20
million a year for the next three years working with PCTs to develop
health services in further education settings to help educate young
people.
The
DoH also plans to test out the feasibility of offering women who attend
abortion clinics long-acting reversible contraceptives in bid to reduce
the number of abortions.
It seems the experts aren't so baffled after all.
sanjay.tanday@haymarket.com