Church leader’s outrage as Scots abortion figures hit record level

THE number of women having ­abortions in Scotland has reached the highest level since the procedure was legalised over four decades ago.

ANGER Cardinal Keith O Brien the leader of Scotland s Catholics has spoke of his outrage at the fi ANGER: Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the leader of Scotland’s Catholics has spoke of his outrage at the fi

NHS figures published yesterday show 13,817 terminations were carried out in 2008. Almost 3,500 were for women aged under 20 and 343 were for girls under the age of 16.

Just over a quarter were for women who had previously had an abortion.

The rate of abortion is now standing at an all-time high, at 13.1 per 1,000 women aged 15-44. And the continuing rise in Scotland is in contrast to England and Wales, which last year recorded a 1.6 per cent decrease .

Opposition politicians yesterday demanded that efforts to improve sexual health be stepped up, while church leaders described the statistics as “inhuman and degrading”.

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Ross Finnie said it was particularly worrying that so many young girls are resorting to abortion.

He said: “Any new campaign about safe sex must focus on deprived areas and younger girls, but it also needs to teach women that abortion should not be seen as a contraceptive.”

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the leader of Scotland’s Catholics, said the statistics represented a human rights violation “on a massive scale”. Basing the figures on a five-day week, he said: “We destroy 53 unborn children each day in Scotland. Were this carnage to take place among children lucky enough to have been born our outrage would be boundless.”

Two years ago he was accused of using inflammatory language after he compared the abortion rate to “two Dunblane massacres a day”.

He added: “Grotesquely, since then we have seen classroom sizes in Scotland fall and abortion numbers rise.

“Today we abort over 50 children per day, or two classrooms full. These statistics shame and debase us all.”

Public Health Minister Shona Robison described the rise in the number of terminations as “disappointing”.

She said: “Education has a key role to play, which is why we are working to provide additional information around relationships and sexual health. ”

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