MP fights for change in law on teenage abortion

By Jennifer Hill

LONDON (Reuters) - A Conservative MP is trying to change the law to give parents the right to know before their under-age daughters are given contraception or have an abortion.

Angela Watkinson says giving parents the right to know would help them "protect their children from activities which could harm them".

Parental involvement laws, such as those introduced in the United States, have resulted in a 15 to 20 percent drop in the abortion rate for minors, according to studies.

Britain has the highest rate (40 percent) in Europe of sexually active children under the age of 15 and it also has the highest rate of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among teenagers in western Europe.

Speaking ahead of presenting her "Contraception and Abortion (Parental Information) Bill" to parliament on Wednesday, Upminster MP Watkinson said the government's teenage pregnancy strategy did nothing to deter sexual activity below the legal age of consent of 16.

"As things stand, many parents have no idea whatsoever that their children are being provided with contraception or abortion," said Watkinson. "The first thing they learn may be when their children are reported to have some form of sexually transmitted disease."

Professor David Paton, an expert on teenage pregnancy and STDs, said that legal systems that require parents to be told before an abortion is performed on a minor have resulted in a considerable decrease in pregnancy, abortion and STDs.

Paton, of Nottingham University's business school, said studies showed that parental involvement laws reduced the abortion rate of minors by 11 percent among those aged 15, 20 percent among those aged 16 and 20 percent among 17-year-olds.