Official [UK] figures show that more than 21,000 girls under 18 chose to have a termination in 2007, the first time the proportion has reached 50 per cent.
The overall rate for all girls under 18 rose for the first time since 2002.
It means that a Government target to halve the number of teenage pregnancies by next year now looks almost certain be missed despite intense efforts to promote contraception and more sex education in schools.
The figures come amid the furore over 13-year-old Alfie Patten, the schoolboy from Sussex who is said to be the father of his 15-year-old girlfriend Chantelle Stedman's daughter, Maisie Roxanne.
Ann Furedi, chief executive of the charity the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), the UK's largest abortion provider, said: "The fact that half of the teenagers in this position felt able to end their pregnancy in abortion is actually a positive sign."
She described the fact that there is less social stigma among young people about having an abortion as "an entirely good thing".
Abortion is entirely a good thing?
No social stigma?
Un
be
liev
able.
So much for the act of last resort.
The Government responded by announcing an extra £20.5 million to promote contraception in skills including a £7 million media campaign.
After intense efforts, the government will spend more money to do the same thing. That's actually the definition of Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result.
Related: Abortion, root of all evil, so to speak
The overall rate for all girls under 18 rose for the first time since 2002.
It means that a Government target to halve the number of teenage pregnancies by next year now looks almost certain be missed despite intense efforts to promote contraception and more sex education in schools.
The figures come amid the furore over 13-year-old Alfie Patten, the schoolboy from Sussex who is said to be the father of his 15-year-old girlfriend Chantelle Stedman's daughter, Maisie Roxanne.
Ann Furedi, chief executive of the charity the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), the UK's largest abortion provider, said: "The fact that half of the teenagers in this position felt able to end their pregnancy in abortion is actually a positive sign."
She described the fact that there is less social stigma among young people about having an abortion as "an entirely good thing".
Abortion is entirely a good thing?
No social stigma?
Un
be
liev
able.
So much for the act of last resort.
The Government responded by announcing an extra £20.5 million to promote contraception in skills including a £7 million media campaign.
After intense efforts, the government will spend more money to do the same thing. That's actually the definition of Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result.
Related: Abortion, root of all evil, so to speak