2.3 million abortions in Indonesia each year

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 02/16/2009 12:17 PM  

An average of 2.3 million women, 30 percent of whom are teenagers, report having abortions in Indonesian each year, according to a report released by an NGO on Monday. 

"Unwanted pregnancy among teenagers is increasing by a rate of between 150,000 and 200,000 cases annually, Luh Putu Ikha Widani of the We Love Teenagers (Kisara) Bali said, as quoted by kompas.com.   

She said the survey, which was conducted in nine major cities in Indonesia, found 37,000 cases of unwanted pregnancies, 27 per cent of which had occurred out of wedlock. Around 12.5 per cent of the total number of cases occurred among students. 

"If we carefully observe the phenomenon, unwanted pregnancy among teenagers is actually caused by an accumulation of factors such as poor access to proper information on reproductive health and widespread myths," she added.  

Ikha Widani argued that efforts needed to be made to provide correct information to teenagers, especially since "28.5 percent of teenagers today are sexually active." (amr)