The Department of Health statistics show that in 2003, 1,023 abortions were performed on 14-year-olds. In addition, 148 were performed on 11, 12 and 13-year-olds.
The government has set itself a target to halve the number of pregnancies among 15 to 17-year-olds in England by 2010 and has allocated £138m on funding the education department’s teenage pregnancy strategy, launched in 1998.
The figures, however, show that among the youngest age group, abortion jumped 9% in a year. In 2002, 1,075 girls aged 14 and under had legal abortions in England and Wales, rising to 1,171 in 2003. About 3,500 girls under 16 have pregnancies terminated each year.
Anti-abortion campaigners this weekend expressed anger that the figures for the youngest girls had not previously been released by the government.
Julia Millington, political director of the ProLife party, said: “I find these figures staggering. Abortion reached an all-time high in 2003 and the highest increase was among teenagers.
Advertisement
“The strategy to reduce teenage abortion is not working and is having the opposite effect. Abortions and sexually transmitted diseases in teenagers are rising and it is time the government revised its strategy.”
In a case now before the High Court, parents are trying to overturn health department advice that doctors should maintain confidentiality even with the youngest abortion patients. This means parents sometimes do not find out when their daughter has an abortion.
The case follows the nationwide debate sparked last year when 14-year-old Melissa Smith from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, had an abortion without her mother being informed after she had taken advice from a community health worker.
Ann Furedi, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, said many teenage girls chose to have abortions to ensure they could continue with education and most decisions were taken with the support of family members. “The notion that 14-year-old girls are slipping in and out of an abortion clinic without anybody noticing is nonsense,” she said.