Abortion reaches alarming levels

PALANGKARAYA, Central Kalimantan: The abortion rate among young women has reached alarming levels, a family planning official says.

The National Family Planning Board (BKKBN)'s Director of Youth Affairs and Reproductive Rights Protection, Eddy Hasmi, said on Thursday that his office estimated that two million illegal abortions were carried out each year, 30 percent of them involving young women.

"The rate is worrying as abortion endangers the girls' lives," Eddy told students attending a reproductive health counseling here on Thursday.

Young women, he said, had begun to regard abortion as acceptable as a result of changes in moral values, particularly as regards premarital sex.

The airing of TV programs glamorizing promiscuity and the widespread availability of pornographic films and material had contributed to the rising incidence of premarital sex, Eddy said. -- Antara