Spain: Nearly 80 percent of pregnant teens choose not to abort

Madrid, Spain, Jul 6, 2011 / 12:06 pm

Nearly 80 percent of pregnant teenage girls in Spain choose to continue their pregnancies when they receive the necessary support and counseling, reported the Red Madre Foundation.
 
The director of the foundation, Carmina Garcia-Valdes, told reporters that since Spain’s new abortion law took effect one year ago, there has been a 45 percent increase in the number of teenage girls who have sought her organization’s assistance.

The foundation has helped more than 6,000 women choose life since it was founded in 2007.
 
In 2010, 53 percent of the 4,331 women helped by the foundation were between the ages of 14 and 20, up from 18 percent in 2009.  Many of the women who seek out assistance are immigrants “who do not want to abortion but suffer from all kinds of pressure.”
 
Garcia-Valdes underscored that eight out of every 10 pregnant teens decided to continue on with their pregnancies, which shows that “teens do not want to abort,” and that those who do so are reacting to “pressure, in most cases, from their family members.”
 
She also noted that teens “are not protected by the law,” since abortion on demand up to the 14th week ensures they suffer “even more pressure” to “abort as soon as possible and to not think about it too much.” 
 
“They have no time for reflection and now they are asking us for psychological and psychiatric help,” she added.
 
“When a pregnant woman receives the help she needs, she continues on. Perhaps her situation remains unresolved but once she has her child, she has the necessary tools to carry on,” Garcia-Valdes said.