Abortion rates down

Sunday 12 July 2015

There’s been a big drop in the number of women and teenage girls having abortions in Jersey.

The latest Health figures show there were 163 last year – half as many as there were 15 years ago and the rate has been a lot lower over the last couple of years than in England and Wales.

More than half of those were women in their 20’s, half of them were single but just over a quarter were in a relationship and living with their partner.

More than a third had had at least one abortion in the past and almost a quarter of them were women under 25.

Fewer than five teenage girls under the age of 16 had abortions last year, that’s about the same number as in 2013 and Health say there have been fewer getting pregnant too.

Health say that's largely down to sex education lessons at school. The results of the latest Schools survey that came out in March show that 70% of teenagers said they had the confidence to say no to sex and over 75% of 14-15 year olds knew where to go to get free condoms.