May 24, 2006 / 22:00 pm
Policymakers in Scotland must gather their courage to publicly discourage early sexual activity and promote abstinence, said Archbishop Mario Conti of Glasgow after new government statistics revealed that the number of abortions in the country have reached an all-time high. There were 12,603 abortions in Scotland in 2005.
The new data demonstrates that “the current approach of ever greater availability of contraception, ever more explicit sex education and ever easier access to abortion is a recipe for disaster,” said the archbishop.
"It must be time for a radical reappraisal of policy. In both the developed and developing world there is evidence that public encouragement of chastity, before marriage and fidelity within it, is effective in cutting the rate of unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions,” he said.
The archbishop agreed that young people “need to be well informed about sex.” But, he said, “they need to be aware of the consequences no less than the mechanics.
“The 12,603 abortions carried out in 2005 are a sad indictment of the failing policies which we must have the courage to reverse,” he concluded.