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“Abortion Lessons” for Children Should be Mandatory, Ministers Advisory Group Suggests

By Gudrun Schultz

LONDON, United Kingdom, September 11, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) -  School children 11 years and older should be given compulsory classes promoting abortion as part of sex education, a ministers’ advisory group has recommended.

The group has also pushed for the establishment of mandatory sex education classes for children as young as five, which would include information on abortion under the recommendation of the current report, according to coverage by the Evening Standard.

The report called for lessons that would present the benefits of abortion, so pregnant teenage girls could “make an informed decision” about ending their pregnancy, as well as information combating the “myths” that dissuade teenagers from aborting their pregnancies--concerns that abortion might lead to future infertility was one of the “myths” that needed to be addressed, said the report authors.

The Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy reports to Education Secretary Alan Johnson and Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt.

The Government campaign to reduce teen pregnancies through sex education has come under heavy criticism from groups concerned by the ease with which young girls can obtain abortions, frequently without their parents’ knowledge or consent.

“It is absolute rubbish to say that young people do not know about abortion. They know only too much about abortion,” Phyllis Bowman of Right to Life told the Standard.

“The education establishment has continued to ignore the results of 30 years of its policies on sex education which has pushed abortion under the noses of young people.”

 About 4000 abortions are performed annually on girls younger than 16, according to the Standard. Another 35,000 girls between 16 and 19 undergo abortions each year.

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children warned recently that the front-runner in Britain’s coming election, MP Gordon Brown, has a dismal record on life-related issues equal or worse to that of the administration of Prime Minister Tony Blair.

“Mr. Brown has voted consistently in favour of abortion,” said SPUC political secretary Anthony Ozimic, reported BBC News. “In 1990, he voted with the pro-abortion lobby no fewer than 16 times - three times for abortion up to birth, including for disabled babies;  twice for abortion on demand in early pregnancy; once to extend the Abortion Act to Northern Ireland; once for selective foeticide in multiple pregnancies; once to facilitate RU486; once to suppress information about abortions on disabled babies; and seven times for other pro-abortion positions.”

Ozimic said in light of MP Brown’s “hardline pro-abortion record,” any review of abortion law in the near future would be “exceptionally dangerous.”

See coverage by the Evening Standard:
 
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23366118-details/Abortion+lessons+for...

See related LifeSiteNews coverage:

UK: Rising Number of Abortions Confirm Need to Change 1967 Law
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/aug/06080107.html

UK Cardinal Fights for Abortion Law Change: Parliament Considers Lower Gestational Limit for Abortion
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jun/06062111.html

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