One of the stars of Channel 4’s Embarrassing Bodies has blamed MIDDLE-AGED women who think a ‘lady shouldn’t carry condoms’ for the 10,000 recorded abortions in Greater Manchester last year.
Around 40% of pregnancies are unplanned in the UK. In England, 40.6% of those result in an abortion.
Greater Manchester has the highest abortion rates outside of London, with more than 10,000 in recorded in 2013.
Speaking at a pop-up event in Piccadilly Gardens, Dr Dawn Harper said we must take responsibility as a nation for the UK’s shocking abortion and teenage pregnancy rates and make efforts to rectify it.
“I don’t know why Greater Manchester is in the top five,” Dr Harper told MM. “But it is and we’re all trying to help with the issue. We shouldn’t say that abortion is available on demand in this country, but it is effectively.
“I generally find that it’s the women in their 40s who are back in the sexual market place, and who were brought up in an era when ‘nice women didn’t carry condoms, thank you’.
“Maybe they’ve got one or two kids already, and they’re the women who struggle the most emotionally with the decision, more so than the younger girls, who’ve never had a baby or been pregnant.”
World Contraception Day, which takes place on September 26, is centred on encouraging safer sex all around the world, as well in the UK.
DIFFERENT ERA: Dr Dawn Harper says the nation need to take responsibility
The Family Planning Association have produced a leaflet with all of the Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptive methods (LARCs), such as the implant or the coil, available free of charge on the NHS.
“I know as a GP that many women come to me and say ‘I want the pill’,” she said. “What they really mean is I want a form of contraception other than condoms.
“A lot of those women still are just given the pill rather than have the other options discussed with them, because it’s quick.
“It can be very tempting when someone comes in says that they want the pill to catch up quickly and write the proscription, but we ought to really be using that opportunity to talk women through all of their options.”
The Family Planning Association, along with Dr Harper, found that many women didn’t know that some of the LARCs could be offered at their GP’s surgery.
“We don’t do implants at my practice, so I would send someone to a family planning clinic for that,” she said.
“I often give out the leaflets from the family planning association with all the options, and they come back take up one of the LARCs, many of which I can do right there in the surgery like the contraceptive injection.”
Image courtesy of Canwest News, with thanks.
