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NEW DELHI, INDIA, September 20, 2002: Sexual activity, abortions and deaths from illegal abortions among teens in India is on the rise. Up to 60 million Indian women seek abortions every year. Some 100,000 died last year due to hazardous practices used in embryo removal. Four out of every five who died were 15-19 years old. An overwhelming majority of them were unmarried. “Increased teenage premarital sex has pushed up the number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions,” gynecologist Dr. Kamini A. Rao said in a press conference in New Delhi. “The reason is that unwed pregnant girls are scared to seek parents’ help and are forced to go to quacks who perform unsafe abortions.” In the United States, where abortions are legal and sexual information is easily accessible, the Centers For Disease Control (CDC) recently published birth statistics showing American teen pregnancies fell to a record low in 2001. There were 352,953 births for women, ages 15 to 19 in the United States. The birthrate for teenagers 15-17 years fell 8 percent in 2001, and has dropped 35 percent since 1991. Statistics published by the CDC for 1998 (the most recent data) show that American teens, ages 15 to 19, had 146,377 abortions.

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