Does LOVE mean SEX?

In England and Wales, 193,737 abortions were recorded in 2006. Pregnancy termination at 20 weeks or more are still called abortion (TheSun, 2008).

In Japan, it is lawful to do abortion when the pregnancy or delivery is likely to jeopardize the pregnant woman's heath in either physically or economically (Japan Public Health 2008). Termination of pregnancy is performed after 12 weeks, the doctor would need to record a "still birth". Each year, there are more than 30,000 fetus had been denied the rights of their lives by the "pro-choice" decision under this act in Japan, and that exclude "still birth" when the pregnancy is being terminated when the fetus is more than 12 weeks old. Underaged pregnancies, pregnancies due to sex before marriage, pregnancies results from "trades" in sex industry are perhaps a LARGE composition to the category of "Unready Pregnancies". As workers of public health, we may need to take caution as we interpret the figure of "still birth".

After war, the abortions was high, once achieved 1.17 million in 1955. It marked the tragedy of time where Japan faced in the first ten years after the war - poverty. Extreme poverty that had caused raising a child uneasy, the parents are not ready for another mouth to feed. At the same time, the suicide rate at the cities continued to raise in the first twenty years postwar. At that time, abortion was not only about uncontrolled sex, but an awful heartache situation that the mother or the family would have to choose to bear with either decision that would have been made.

Today, the abortion rate in Japan had steadily decreased to a quarter compared to 1955, yet there are still more than 30,000 lives that were taken away annually. An article by New York Times in 1996 had recorded some of the remarks of the temple worshippers with concern to abortion, you may find it helpful or an eye opener to this question. The number of abortions of teenagers per age group 15-19 steadily increased, perhaps active younger sexual activities and non-use of oral contraceptive pills were one of the major cause. The figure of teenage girl undergo abortions had doubled from 1995 to 2003. If 11.9 per 1000 teenage girls undergo abortions annually (2003), it means more than 43,000 teenage girls that went through abortions*. This is HUGE figure!

What are our counter measures? Provide Sex Education in elementary schools or junior high schools? Distributing condoms to the schools? Urging the government to approve more oral contraceptive pills? Or should we teach Human Dignity and raise moral ethics? Or is the last proposal seemed to be too out of date and unpopular choice?

When I first arrived Hong Kong, I was stunned with a report that the mother had proudly announced this statement as she fixed a contraceptive implant at her 11 years old daughter's arm, "Now, I am more than relax." The news report suggested to me two things, which is either, there is highly chances to get rape in Hong Kong; or sexual activities are predicted (or common) at age of 11.

A social worker told me how they have helped to organize forums and small group meetings for teenage girls sent to their centers to talk about their experience with boy-girl relationship, and how they helped them to overcome the nightmares of taking away their babies. Many of them cried and breakdown as they thought about it. So many more tried to hide behind a veil, play tough, and not talk about it anymore. Some had gone through abortions so many times, aren't they aware of it? I asked. The boy friend like the sensation of doing it without condoms, she answered. Many thought that having sex is the only way to keep the relationship. Oral contraceptives are just too expensive. So they take the risk, and go for abortion when they pregnant. In Hong Kong, having sex with teenage girls is an offensive behavior, and will be put to jail. In this case, underaged pregnancy and sex before marriage is a HIGH cost to pay.

I'm not sure if this is a social problem in a materialistic world. But I see this happening in developing countries too. I have no clue of how widespread is the incidence of sex before marriage, but I notice one thing perhaps common with all these teenage girls..... INSECURITY, LOST.

Many of these girls are so lost that they do not know what does self-worth mean to them, not understanding their worths and values, virginity is not worthy to keep when their partners demand sexual behavior because they thought the meaning of LOVE is nonetheless highly depending on SEX. "If you love me, you would not have mind to give me your body!" "If you don't have sex with me, it means you don't love me!" There are a lot of distorted mindsets, I heard people in the campus telling one, "you are just too old to keep your virginity!" I also heard doctors said to their teenage patients, "Oh don't lie, you must have been sleeping with a lot of guys," when they mistook a rare skin disease as STD (sexually transmitted diseases). Are the above quotes familiar to you?

What should be our counter measures? Perhaps there is something more deeper within that we should look at when we distribute condoms and fight for oral contraceptives approval. Perhaps that digs out a deeper root of the problem that is embedded in the society. Perhaps we should begin to even take the emotional part and the choice of the women: is loosing virginity before marriage a RIGHT for women, a mark for liberty civilization, or is that just an COVER UP for the lustful and irresponsible act of men? Does LOVE mean SEX? Is our society sick, that we need to seek reform? or should we continue to blind our eyes to the insecurity that exhibits in the teenage girls, and just "fix" the surface by saying, "Who cares if they are secure or insecure? It is a decision that they make when they date. We can't stop what people feel like doing, nor we should tell them sex before marriage is bad. It's their decision they need to make, condoms and oral contraceptive pills are available, just leave them alone!"

Thoughts...... THINK......

Notes:

* 3,654,181 females (15-19 years old) were recorded at the population census in Japan at year 2000. 11.9 out of 1,000 teenage undergo abortions would record a conservative number of 43,000 with the teenage population recorded above. Yet, as in the report of public health Japan, 13.6% of the mothers who went through abortions were below 20 and 45.5% of the mothers were from 20-29. 56.6% of the abortions were less than 7 weeks as of the year of 2001. The real figure of abortion would be perhaps more than what was recorded.

Re: Public Health Japan, 2008; Statistic Bureu, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Japan.

Picture of the fetus taken from Facts Behind Abortion Debate. The Sun co.UK, 07 May 2008