Posted on 02/21/2005 12:30:05 PM PST by quidnunc
The full extent of the disaster caused by the government’s teenage pregnancy strategy is only now becoming apparent. Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed that more than 1000 girls aged 14 had abortions last year.
In addition, 148 abortions were performed on girls aged between 11 and 13. About 3,500 girls aged under 16 have pregnancies terminated every year. And among the youngest age group, the number of abortions jumped last year by nine per cent.
Small wonder that until a week ago the Government was refusing to disclose these statistics on the spurious grounds that they were so small that disclosure risked identifying individual cases. Now we can see the real reason — that these horrifying figures expose the utter bankruptcy of government policy.
Not only did Britain’s abortion rate reach a record level in 2003, but the highest increase occurred among teenagers, the most vulnerable of all. The toll of damaged lives and compromised emotional and physical health among young people is hard to over-estimate.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at melaniephillips.com ...
Some influential people actively want to promote a breakdown in conventional norms of behaviour. Many others in official circles believe — wrongly — that government is helpless to resist the great cultural movement towards a behavioural free-for-all.
This is what you get when you start taking French philosophes seriously.
Of course, much depends on what this would mean in practice. And there’s still a long way to go before the Tories fully re-engage with the moral crisis that lies beneath so many of our social ills. Nevertheless, it is a courageous stab at the received unwisdom of non-judgmentalism, which has such a stranglehold over intellectual and political life and has sacrificed so many thousands of young casualties to binge-drinking, drug-taking and sexual promiscuity.
Too many Brits don't seem to have definable core beliefs.
FYI
Sex education thus became a synonym for sex promotion. Children were given advice more appropriate for sexually promiscuous adults. Worst of all, parental responsibility was undermined by children being offered abortions without their parents even knowing, let alone giving their consent.These people need to be stopped once and for all.The result has been as appalling as it has been inevitable: an inexorable rise not just in the rate of teenage pregnancy but also abortions and sexually transmitted diseases among the very young.
Do no teenagers have abortions in the USA?
You'll have to understand quidnunc - he has his xenophobia in chapters - Chapter 1 was Canada, Chapter 2 was Britain. No doubt someone in Australia will offend him at some point and that will be sufficient to open Chapter 3.
Regards, Ivan
One wonders about the beliefs of someone who is allowing his petty grudges to define the bulk of his contribution to this site.
For everyone who wants to know what I mean, see Post 57.
Ivan
Abortions and teenage pregnancies in the US are on the decline, not on the increase.
That is not consistent across all states to be sure. ANd if one reads this site regularly enough, you can find plenty of conservatives saying things in America are going to hell in a handbasket. They aren't any more in America than they are in Britain.
Picking on Britain serves the California Redwood sized chip on your shoulder, that's all. It has nothing to do with the truth, and everything to do with you, dare I say, being "bitchy".
Ivan
I'm just posting articles from reputable news outlets, in this case an undisputed conservative (in the American sense of the word).
You are dramatising it to make it sound like Britain is going to hell in a handbasket - and you pick columnists such as Melanie Phillips who is, dare I say, on something of a fringe.
The purpose of this dramatisation, as my link back to your post shows, is because you bear a grudge from your experiences on other sites. It is not I who said it, your own words more than sufficiently tie the noose and hang you.
I'm just posting articles from reputable news outlets, in this case an undisputed conservative (in the American sense of the word).
She's not a conservative. She's merely cranky. Perhaps we should not be surprised that you can't tell the difference.
Ivan
We lead by example, if we continue to turn the tide against the left here and our success can be measured against liberal failures in England they will follow our lead. Just as the failure of gun control there is used as an example of what not to do here. We will not waver, we will not fail.
I think what is telling is quidnuncs frequent postings of articles which show Britain in a "bad light" and his habit of adding nasty little post scripts to them (eg, "This is what you get when you start taking French philosophes seriously" and "Too many Brits don't seem to have definable core beliefs")
Quite. It's all part and parcel of his private little war against the Anglo-American alliance, because as I showed, his feelings got bruised in some verbal repartee on another site.
Regards, Ivan
This article set me thinking, so I did some research.
Abortions (per capita) (Top 19 Countries)
Country Description Amount
1. Russia 19.14 per 1000 people
2. Bulgaria 12.87 per 1000 people
3. Hungary 7.66 per 1000 people
4. Cuba 7.45 per 1000 people
5. Sweden 4.22 per 1000 people
6. United States 4.17 per 1000 people
7. Norway 3.00 per 1000 people
8. Iceland 2.87 per 1000 people
9. New Zealand 2.82 per 1000 people
10. United Kingdom 2.78 per 1000 people
11. Japan 2.69 per 1000 people
12. France 2.67 per 1000 people
13. Israel 2.53 per 1000 people
14. Italy 2.31 per 1000 people
15. Canada 2.19 per 1000 people
16. Finland 1.90 per 1000 people
17. Germany 1.18 per 1000 people
18. India 0.56 per 1000 people
19. Greece 0.11 per 1000 people
Source http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/hea_abo_cap&int=19
Pretty awful reading really for ALL the countries involved.
She might be fringe in Britain, but in the U.S. she would be slightly — but only just slightly — to the left of the likes of Charles Krauthammer, Victor Davis Hanson, Mark Steyn and Paul Greenberg, just to name a few columnists.
And if she is a fringe columnist, whjat does that say about the state of British conservatism?
More interesting statistics from the same source...
Average number of births for every 1,000 girls aged 15 to 19
1. United States 64
2. Bulgaria 59
3. Czech Republic 46
4. Slovakia 44
5. 43
6. Ukraine 43
7. Hungary 41
8. Romania 41
9. Moldova 38
10. New Zealand 35
11. Latvia 35
12. Estonia 34
13. United Kingdom 33
14. Lithuania 32
15. Croatia 32
16. Slovenia 30
17. Iceland 29
18. Poland 28
19. Belarus 28
http://www.nationmaster.com/red/graph-T/hea_tee_bir_rat&int=19
"Moral wasteland" eh?
In your opinion. But I would hasten to add that a lot more British publications carry Mark Steyn than carry her. Which says a lot more about what British conservatives like to read than you would care to admit.
I realise that you're going to be a bloody minded bigot until you find another target. Here's wishing happy hunting to you, to find some other foreigners to hate.
Ivan
In Britain Steyn is carried in the former Hollinger publications, The Telegraph and The Spectator.
Melanie Phillips is carried in The Mail.
Two is not generally considered "a lot more" than one.
It is considered twice as many, and Steyn apparently publishes more often.
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