Canada Sees Drop in Teen Pregnancy Rate but Abortion Rate Higher 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 17, 2007
Ottawa, Canada (LifeNews.com) — Canada has seen a drop in the number of abortions and teenage pregnancies as both numbers are declining to their lowest levels in some time. The teen pregnancy rate is at its lowest mark but the abortion rate has increased even though the number of abortions has declined.
Those figures come from a new report from the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada.
Alex McKay, research co-ordinator and author of the study, told the Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper that the numbers are down because of an increased use of birth control rather than an increase in teenager practicing abstinence.
The study shows that about 33,000 teenagers 19 or younger get pregnant every year and more than half, 18,000, of those end in abortion. About 15,000 pregnant teens decided to give birth.
The group published its study in today’s edition of the Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality and it showed that the Canada pregnancy rate for teens fell to 32.1 per 100,000 population in 2003 from 53.9 per 100,000 in 1974.
However, the abortion rate on teenagers over the same period increased to 17.1 per 100,000 from 13.9 per 100,000 even though the number of teenage abortions is declining.
Overall in Canada, there are about 330,000 lives birth each year and about 110,000 abortions.
The new figures come just days after several thousand pro-life advocates participated in the nation’s annual March for Life.
It comes on the heels of a call by a US-based abortion industry group for more doctors and hospitals in Canada to do abortions
In May 1969, the Canadian government approved the passage of a bill that took off the books many of the protective laws the nation had in place.
Then, in January 1988, the nation’s abortion law was struck down from the Criminal Code by the Supreme Court of Canada resulting in full legal abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy.
As a result, there have been more than 3 million abortions in Canada, resulting the death of babies before birth and injuring countless women.
