Abortion 'pressure' in rich areas

The proportion of teenage pregnancies ending in abortion is higher in rich suburbs than in deprived areas, according to a report in the British Medical Journal. Trevor Smith, information officer for Tayside Health Board in Dundee, who carried out the study, said the high abortion rate in the affluent areas was probably due to parental pressure. But in the most rundown areas the rate of pregnancy in girls under 16 is three times higher, and in girls under 20 six times higher, than in the most affluent areas.