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By Hilary White
 
  EDINBURGH, May 30, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Scotland is reporting an all-time high in the number of abortions being committed; as a solution the country is offering more ‘sex-education’ in schools and free condoms.
 
  13,081 pregnancies were “terminated” in Scotland in 2006, compared with 12,603 the year before, with the highest rates among those women aged between 16 and 19. The level of abortions among those aged under 16 also reached a record high of 362 in 2006, from 341 the year before and 309 in 2004.
 
  The BBC reports that the greatest increase is in so-called “medical” or chemical abortions, those procured directly with drugs rather than surgery. This rate rose dramatically, with 59.1% carried out last year, compared with 16.4% when they were first introduced in 1992.
 
  The government of Britain has touted abortion drugs as a ‘safe’ alternative to surgical abortions. The deadly drugs – methotrexate for earlier stages of pregnancy, and misoprostol and mifepristone (RU 486, mifeprex) for late-term abortions – are under heavy scrutiny after a number of women died in the US. The UK’s abortion provider BPAS, formerly known as the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, said the rate of women using the abortion drug Mifeprex doubled between 2005 and 2006.
 
  Public Health Shona Robison responded saying, “The Scottish government is committed to improving Scotland’s sexual health and reducing the number of unintended pregnancies through Respect and Responsibility, the national sexual health strategy.”
 
  The Tayside area had the highest abortion figures for those aged from 15 to 44 with 15.7 abortions per 1,000 women. Tayside is also seeing an alarmingly high rate of sexually transmitted diseases. In response, Tayside announced that it will implement a new strategy to combat teen pregnancy: condoms for free at drugstores near schools; making the morning after pill available at GP offices near schools; and increased advertising for “sexual health services” in secondary schools.
 
  With the abortion rates on the rise, Scotland’s Catholic prelates are becoming more vocal in their criticism of what they call a “deadly social experiment”.
 
  Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, Keith Cardinal O’Brien, called “a pack of lies” assurances by the government in 1967 that legalized abortion would be allowed only in “exceptional” circumstances.
 
  In a pre-published homily for the Church’s annual “Day for Life” Mass, the Cardinal says, “We were told that backstreet abortions were killing women and had to be decriminalised. We were told abortion would only be used in extreme cases. We were told medical scrutiny would be rigorous. We were told lies and misinformation masquerading as compassion and truth.”
 
“Yes, life is precious and precious also are those lives that are snuffed out in darkness, hidden from the world.”
  
  Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Eugenic Abortion Looms Large in UK as Abortion Pill Use Doubles
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/may/06052902.html