Teenage abortions double in Pridnestrovie

A newborn in a Pridnestrovie hospital. For every 100 live births there are now 108 abortions in the country

DUBOSSARY (Tiraspol Times) - Teenage girls between 15 and 19 years old have had more than five hundred abortions in the first four months of 2008 in Pridnestrovie. This is twice as much as the amount of abortions which took place in the same period last year, and it has set alarm bells ringing in the new and emerging country.

Overall, abortions now outnumber live births in Pridnestrovie: For every 100 newborn babies, a total of 108 abortions take place.

Statistics also reveal fifty cases of abortion among girls younger than 15 years of age, so far this year. Pridnestrovie has just under 550,000 inhabitants.

The alarming statistics were announced Monday at the first meeting between civil society organizations and political parties that participate in a new project in Pridnestrovie called "Healthy young people and a healthy future." The youth wing of the opposition party Renewal ("Obnovlenie") took the initiative for launching the project.

1,200 abortions this year

Speaking at the founding meeting, Oksana Cheban, a Pridnestrovie-born obstetrician and gynecologist, said that so far this year, there have already been 1,200 abortions in the unrecognized country.

The organizers of the project want to get this number down and believe that the increased number of abortions, already double the number of last year's figure in some age groups, has to be brought under control. According to participants in the event, local youth see an abortion as a valid option because of social problems, a lack of family values and even teenage alcoholism.

According to the World Health Organization, a U.N. agency, a new abortion takes place somewhere in the world every six seconds.

The aim of the new project is to lower the frequency of abortions, at least in Pridnestrovie. Its organizers say that this can be done voluntarily, by educating and by looking into alternatives.

It is expected that the project will include a series of seminars and outreach meetings in schools throughout the length of the Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica (PMR). There will also be competitions, including a prize for the best social poster.

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