The abortion rate for UK women over 40 is up by one third.
Josephine Quintavalle, of the Pro-Life Alliance, said: “These figures are extraordinarily depressing -when we see high rates of teen pregnancy we often end up debating whether ignorance is to blame, but you would think that by the age of 40 women would have some idea how things work.”
I too would have hoped that by 40 women would have some idea of how things work and wouldn’t use abortion as birth control.
People! Sex remains connected to pregnancy.
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One must remember that women at that age would be strongly advised by their doctors to have genetic testing done in utero, and many are advised to abort since their risk of having a child with a disability is higher due to age.
So pressure to abort will have a large part to play here, and women past the age of 40 are going to find an unexpected pregnancy difficult to begin with. Add in the risk factor and they will be quite scared.
They need to be reassured that this testing results in many false positives and they need support to resist the pressure from medics. Many babies have been born to women at this age, in fact I have heard that women who have children over the age of 40 increase their life expectancy. I think that the hormones of pregnancy have a rejuvenating effect upon the mom.
Looking at these statistics, I’m amazed that any British women are having babies. Women under 35 have the pressure to delay parenting until they are settled into their career, have a house, a husband, and have “practiced” with pets for a few years. (I have heard the pet thing so many times this week, it’s nuts!!) They are told to not give up their independence, and that after children they will have no life, no friends, no autonomy, no nothing. Then after 40 they’re being told about birth defects and reminded how exhausting toddlers can be. So, all in all, they have a window of about 3 years to have as many kids as they are going to want. But no pressure, ladies! There’s always enough time to “have it all”!
The body changes after the age of 40, as menopause starts to loom on the horizon. Cycles start being irregular, periods lighter. Women are counseled to get off the pill by their doctors. Many women who have been childless are often surprized. Periods cease, they think that their time of life has arrived, when it is “mommy, last call”. This can be a moment of total delight, especially when their men never wanted children. So, I would not attribute the increase in pregnancies to ignorance of birth control methods, but rather to changes in the body that mean that those contraceptive methods that were so effective, no longer work.