Abortions on young double in 20 years

07.07.2010 By REBECCA TODD - The Press

The number of children having abortions has almost doubled over the past 20 years.

The latest statistics have prompted calls for parents to be informed if their daughter is considering an abortion, but health professionals say the move would be "disastrous".

Last year, 79 girls aged from 11 to 14 had abortions. Of those, 68 were 14-year-olds and 13 aged 11 to 13.

The latest figure is nearly twice the 43 girls under 14 who had abortions in 1991. While the figures have generally been rising, the peak was in 2005, when 105 girls aged 14 and under had an abortion.

Family First director Bob McCoskrie said it was outrageous that parents had to sign a consent form for their child to go on a school trip to the zoo but could be left in the dark if their 11-year-old was having an abortion.

Family First and Prolife New Zealand have been campaigning for parents to have the legal right to be informed if their daughter is considering an abortion.

A law change that would have made it mandatory, backed by National MP Judith Collins, was voted down in 2004.

McCoskrie said a recent Family First-commissioned poll found 80 per cent of people thought parents should be told if their daughter was pregnant and considering an abortion.

He said there was support for the idea within the National Party, but no-one seemed willing to push through a law change.

"Abortion is the only procedure or event in a teenager's life where for no good reason good parents are legally excluded," he said.

Wellington teenager Jasmine Thomas said she felt pressured by staff at a youth health clinic to have an abortion from the moment she found she was pregnant.

The 17-year-old said she did not want one, but was given nearly 20 pamphlets on abortion to take home.

Questions from doctors and peer pressure from friends meant she started to consider a termination, but decided against it after her 12-week scan.

"I think heaps [of young people] get pressured into it," she said.

Thomas, who is due in nine weeks, said parents should have the right to know if their daughter was considering an abortion, but not to interfere in her decision.

Christchurch youth health physician Sue Bagshaw said any move to make informing parents mandatory would be "disastrous".

Girls would be too frightened to access health care, which would mean more unwanted babies, she said.

"I would be really concerned they would turn to back-street abortions or do it themselves."

Bagshaw said she knew a 13-year-old who had tried to terminate her own pregnancy because she was too scared to tell her parents or go to a doctor.

She said the accusation that young people were being encouraged to have abortions was wrong.

Christchurch GP and Lyndhurst operating surgeon Pippa MacKay said doctors would not want to break their patient's confidentiality by informing parents about a planned abortion, but they urged young girls to tell their parents.

Reasons for not informing parents included fear of a bad reaction or the parents trying to influence the decision. Some girls did not want to let their parents down or worry them, or wanted to tell them later in life.

MacKay said most young girls had a "responsible adult" in their life who knew about their situation.

Canterbury-West Coast Secondary Principals Association chairman Denis Pyatt said the relationship school counsellors had with pupils was based on 100 per cent confidentiality. Although parents wanted to know what was going on with their children, the laws were in place to protect young people's rights, he said.

Abortion Law Reform Association president Dame Margaret Sparrow supported the status quo whereby parents did not have to be involved when a young girl wanted an abortion.

"In good families where they have good support they are always there, but there are a few situations where parents are not helpful and it makes it really difficult," she said.