It’s good to see Senator Allison raise the issue of teenage pregnancy, and that she believes a national approach is needed, taking into account the needs of women.

However a few very important facts were omitted from the article.

Firstly, yes, teenager mothers often struggle. But abortion isn’t a benign solution either. Research shows that teenagers are at even greater risk of psychological and emotional damage from abortion than older women. It’s not that teenage pregnancy is such a disaster, it’s more that our community doesn’t support them adequately.

Second, within sexual health programs, education about relationships is an absolutely essential ingredient. All the technical expertise in the world won’t help young people, unless they know how to navigate interpersonal relationships. Especially, beware taking advice from the UK’s Teenage Pregnancy strategy of 2001. Since then, they have experienced an epidemic of STDs and a rise in teenage pregnancies. Their strategy was to have earlier and more explicit sex education – despite research that found that many students simply wanted to learn to say “no”. An English study in 2002, however, showed that “the belief that there are alternatives to sexual intercourse in romantic/sexual relationships and the intention to resist unwanted sexual activities were significantly correlated with delayed sexual intercourse.” (Abraham et al. Cognitive impact of a research-based school sex education programme. Psychology and Health, December 2004;19(6):689-703). In the UK, as condom use rises, so too does emergency contraception.

Put simply, we must not follow the UK’s lead until their sexual health strategies actually show good results.

It’s impossible to say that proper abstinence education (not the same as “just say no” education, and as opposed to harm reduction strategies) doesn’t work, because our government has not supported it in any consistent way. It would also stand in direct contradiction to the hyper-sexualised culture which teenagers are exposed to every day. At the same time, we must not make the mistake of assuming that teenagers are instinctual animals with no self-control. If they can’t stop themselves from having sex, why assume that they will use contraception responsibly? If they are taught that sexual activity is normal and healthy even in early teenage years, how are they to resist it even if they don’t want it? (few teenagers want to be ‘abnormal’ and ‘frigid’.)

Third, don’t get too excited about emergency contraception. A Scottish study gave 17,800 women advance supplies of emergency contraception at home. In the authors’ words, “no effect on abortion rates was demonstrated with advanced provision of EC. The results of this study suggest that widespread distribution of advanced supplies of EC through health services may not be an effective way to reduce the incidence of unintended pregnancy in the UK.” (Glasier A et al. Advanced provision of emergency contraception does not reduce abortion rates. Contraception 2004 May;69(5):361-6). This study is simply too large and well-conducted to be ignored. Other studies show that increasing access of teenagers to emergency contraception certainly increases use, but fails to significantly change the pregnancy rate. There are very good reasons for this, the main reason being that pregnancy does not usually result from a one-off ‘accident’ or contraceptive failure – it takes place in the context of a risky lifestyle. Similarly, abortion will not be prevented by emergency contraception partly because the ‘causes’ of abortion are so much more complex than one sexual act. As Germaine Greer says, abortion is the last in a long line of non-choices.

I would urge Senator Allison to remember that reducing the abortion rate requires two separate strategies: (a) preventing unwanted pregnancy, and (b) making sure women don’t feel abortion is the only option when they face unplanned pregnancy. Both will be necessary, and we need a national debate on abortion to advance women’s interests.

It was Tony Abbott who told us that there are 100,000 abortions a year in Australia, in order to launch his latest "abortion debate". He was immediately challenged by professionals who argued that this number is too high (old data, contestable definitions, dodgy statistics). Only a few days before, it was reported that 100,000 Iraqis have been killed in the war. This report was immediately challenged by the Howard Government, who argued that this number is too high (the US is not counting anyway). The question is, do numbers count?

When I was 19, one of my friends fell pregnant from a one-night-stand. She was against abortion and decided to have the child.

Now, 7 years later, her son has learning and behavioural difficulties, she is divorced (the man she married was not her son's father) and she is 8 weeks pregnant to her new boyfriend of 4 months.

It's a sad truth that none of her family nor her teachers really cared for her future when she was in her late teens. So she learned not to either. My friend has never had a career or even a steady job, and yet she is an intelligent, lively woman.

Before she fell pregnant, I remonstrated with her about her lack of contraception but she seemed to think it "wouldn't happen to her". Lack of knowledge of contraception wasn't the problem; lack of understanding of the consequences was.

Somehow this needs to be addressed.

Well done Lyn, but I would argue that not only do the kids need to be educated but their parents as well. Everybody who reads this should asks themselves how would they react if they found comdoms in their 15 year olds draw/bag/pocket.

Ruby - I think there's only one thing to consider - how to prevent these unwanted pregnancies. Women are aware of the other options (keeping the child or adoption - I don't think there are any others unless you add 'sell into slavery'), that's why they choose abortion. Do you really think the women choosing abortion had not considered the possibility of keeping the baby? I wouldn't blame them for not giving adoption anything more than a cursory glance...

Overwhelmingly it has been shown that abortion is more often the result of failed contraception than anything else, whether that failure is of the contraception itself or human error due to ignorance goes to support the same argument.... we need contraception which is not designed with the idea that if it should fail 'Oh well...you were going to have a baby ONE day!' because I can tell you right now - if they had given me my hard fought for and won tubal ligation when I asked for it at 18 (instead of 24, with my MOTHERS permission can you believe?), there would be one less abortion and one less adoption for the statistics....

No abstinence program works...And I'm glad!! The last thing we need as a species is MORE people psychologically tuned to thinking sex is bad...an idea which originates with the christian church anyway and is NOT natural. All the proof you need that abstinence makes for a phycho population is in the overwhelming number of perverts in the ranks of the catholic churches ministry.

If I could magically change a scientific discovery, I would make it so that IVF was never invented and contraception was 110% fail safe requiring of an expensive and elusive antidote to be taken before one tried to conceive. Wouldn't the world be a wonderful place if every child was wanted...?

Petar U - I wouldn't put too much stock in those numbers, the previous paragraph contradicts that trend, stating that there were half a million terminations to three quarter of a million births.

"there are now more abortions taking place amongst teenagers than actual births. THATS JUST OUTRAGEOUS! "

I would say this is a positive indicator... not that I think it's GREAT they are pregnant in the first place, just it means more girls are taking charge and giving themselves a shot at happiness in the future. Surely you wouldn't say it was better to have all these teen mums? or adoptees adding to the ranks of the unwanted?

I'm almost positive that had these girls had the same options in the past they have now, there would never have been a higher birth rate than abortion rate.... I don't see how it is 'better' to force a future on someone.

Let's not forget - children shouldn't be a punishment.