Three Teenage Girls Have Had EIGHT Abortions, Figures Reveal

Three Teenage Girls Have Had EIGHT Abortions, Figures Reveal
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Three teenage girls have each had EIGHT pregnancies aborted, according to shocking new figures.

The girls were given terminations despite the fact that their history of previous abortions was known.

The cases came to light after the Press Association pressed for statistics from the NHS under the Freedom of Information Act.

They revealed that 38,269 teenagers had abortions in 2010.

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In addition to the three girls who had their eighth terminations that year, two teenage girls had their seventh abortions, while four more teenagers had a termination for the sixth time.

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Fourteen teenage girls had their fifth abortion in 2010, 57 teens had a termination for the fourth time and 485 women aged 19 or under went through the procedure for a third time.

A Department of Health spokesman said: ''Having an abortion can be a very difficult and traumatic experience so we are very concerned about the number of women having multiple abortions.

''It is very important that every woman who has an abortion is offered counselling and given good advice and supplies of contraception."

Tracey McNeill, director of Marie Stopes International, said: ''We believe that women who have already had an abortion should have exactly the same access to sexual reproductive health services as women who have never had an abortion before.

"When women who have already had an abortion present to us for the same procedure, we take extra care to find out the reason for their unplanned pregnancy, and to counsel them about their contraception options."

But the news angered Pro-life campaigners, who said young women were being ''let down in an appalling way''.

Rebecca Mallinson, of the Pro Life Alliance, told the Telegraph: ''There is something seriously wrong with a country where teenagers are having even one abortion, let alone repeat abortions to this extent.

"We are failing these young people in an appalling way, and storing up serious sexual health problems for the future, whether the direct issue of sexually transmitted diseases, but also the effects that multiple abortions can have on future fertility."

A spokeswoman for pressure group LIFE said: ''Abortion is a serious procedure, one which all sides of the abortion debate agree should not be undertaken lightly.

''Yet here we have young women, still not fully mature physiologically and emotionally, undergoing abortions numerous times.

''Are there no mechanisms in the system to prevent or even to flag this? Are there no checks to protect these vulnerable women?

''It cannot be healthy for them, and the provision of abortion is clearly not resolving the problems in the lives that cause them to have multiple crisis pregnancies.''

These figures do appear shocking. What are your thoughts?