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28 / 05 / 2008 - Scotland Abortions Continue Increasing Despite Morning After Pill Push
See also : "Scottish Abortion Rate Continues to Rise in Tandem with `Values-Free` Sex Education"
The number of abortions in Scotland has risen for the third straight year despite a heavy push for women to use the morning after pill. Abortion advocates claimed selling the Plan B drug over the counter would reduce abortion rates, but the new figures reveal the number of abortions rising again.
Abortions in Scotland rose 4% according to a report from the British national health Service and now number 13,703.
That increase came after NHS reported 13,081 abortions in 2006, up from 12,603 the previous year -- an increase of nearly 3.8 percent
The new numbers represent an all-time high for the number of abortions done in that part of Great Britain since abortion was legalized in 1967.
Not only is the increased promoting of the morning after pill resulting in more abortions, not less, the number of women having repeat abortions is increasing as well.
NHS reports more than a quarter of women, 26.3 percent, who had an abortion in Scotland last year had at least one prior abortion before that. That's 3,600 women who had one or more abortions prior, according to the government's statistics.
The new figures also show the number of girls under the age of 16 having abortions has reached its highest levels as well. In 2007, 370 such young teenagers had abortions.
Abortion advocates have claimed higher use of the Plan B drug through over the counter sales will result in a drop in unintended pregnancies and fewer abortions.
However, research and reports show that's not happening.
Dr. Joseph Stanford, associate professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine, says studies he and fellow researchers have done show a lower effectiveness rate than the 89 percent Barr Laboratories claims.
"We did more a precise meta-analysis that shows it's effective only 72 percent of the time, and even that number is optimistic," he indicated.
He also told the newspaper that studies from Europe, China and the United States show that the morning after pill does not reduce abortions.
Source : Steven Ertelt - Editor, LifeNews.com
The number of abortions in Scotland has risen for the third straight year despite a heavy push for women to use the morning after pill. Abortion advocates claimed selling the Plan B drug over the counter would reduce abortion rates, but the new figures reveal the number of abortions rising again.
Abortions in Scotland rose 4% according to a report from the British national health Service and now number 13,703.
That increase came after NHS reported 13,081 abortions in 2006, up from 12,603 the previous year -- an increase of nearly 3.8 percent
The new numbers represent an all-time high for the number of abortions done in that part of Great Britain since abortion was legalized in 1967.
Not only is the increased promoting of the morning after pill resulting in more abortions, not less, the number of women having repeat abortions is increasing as well.
NHS reports more than a quarter of women, 26.3 percent, who had an abortion in Scotland last year had at least one prior abortion before that. That's 3,600 women who had one or more abortions prior, according to the government's statistics.
The new figures also show the number of girls under the age of 16 having abortions has reached its highest levels as well. In 2007, 370 such young teenagers had abortions.
Abortion advocates have claimed higher use of the Plan B drug through over the counter sales will result in a drop in unintended pregnancies and fewer abortions.
However, research and reports show that's not happening.
Dr. Joseph Stanford, associate professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine, says studies he and fellow researchers have done show a lower effectiveness rate than the 89 percent Barr Laboratories claims.
"We did more a precise meta-analysis that shows it's effective only 72 percent of the time, and even that number is optimistic," he indicated.
He also told the newspaper that studies from Europe, China and the United States show that the morning after pill does not reduce abortions.
Source : Steven Ertelt - Editor, LifeNews.com
The Leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland
Cardinal Keith O’Brien
Keith Cardinal O’Brien condemns government’s sex education programmes for throwing fuel on the fire
The abortion rate has continued to rise alarmingly in Scotland, despite claims by health officials that it would be slowed by sex education, increased access to contraceptives at earlier ages and the wide availability of the morning after pill. The leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Keith Cardinal O’Brien, has condemned the government’s sex education programmes as having succeeded only in throwing fuel on the fire.
Scottish abortions topped 13,703 in 2007, up on the previous year’s figure of 13,163. The overall number of women who have had abortions differs according to region, ranging from 19.2 per cent to almost 33 per cent of 15- to 44- year-olds. 372 of the total abortions were carried out on girls less than 16 years of age, among which age group repeat abortions also reached a record number.
In the face of rising abortion statistics in recent months, spokesmen for the Labour government’s health ministry have said that more money will be allotted to sex education programmes and increased distribution of artificial contraception.
Cardinal O’Brien called the government’s “value-free” sex education “redundant”, saying, “Increased repeat abortions and record numbers of under-16s having abortions simply confirms the empirical and statistical evidence that the ‘value-free’ sex education experiment is redundant.”
A spokesman for Glasgow’s Cardinal Conti said, “It is deeply disheartening to see the abortion figures continuing to rise and rise, year after year. One abortion is one too many, but 13,703 is beyond the imagination.”
Ian Murray, from the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said the abortion statistics showed that society was letting women down. He added: "Either our sexual health policies don't teach women anything about their fertility, or life in Scotland has been reduced to a commodity that can be disposed to suit the convenience of others.
"The reality is these statistics refer to human lives – both the babies lost and the women whose lives will be scarred by their decision forever.”
The statistics were released by the health service information department in connection with the debates in the House of Commons over proposals to lower the gestational age limit for abortion. MPs voted to retain the current age restriction at 24 weeks, the highest in the European Union.
Some pro-life advocates objected that efforts by some MPs in Parliament to lower the age limit would have done little to improve the situation. The figures from the health department supported this criticism with early stage abortions continuing to rise. In 2007, 69 per cent of all abortions were carried out on children under ten weeks gestation. Only 44 of the total were late stage abortions, those over 20 weeks.
Source : Hilary White - LifeSiteNews.com