Different approaches to population growth

#905 for broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 8 Jun 2014.

According to new Family Planning data, NSW teenagers have the highest abortion rates in the country, with more teens ending pregnancies than choosing to become parents.

Estimates suggest that there were 4053 abortions among NSW teens aged 15-19 in 2009, roughly double the number in Victoria, Tasmania and Queensland.

Family Planing NSW Chief Executive Ann Brassil said a parent’s ability to give their child the “birds and bees” talk could be the key to combating “unwanted” pregnancy.

But while the birth rates in Western nations are falling and abortion is on the rise, in Iran, where the birth rate has fallen more swiftly than anywhere else in the world, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has launched a plan to double his country’s population to 150 million by means of increasing the birth rate through a ban on abortions and sterilisation, lowering the legal minimum age of marriage, and providing treatment for male and female infertility.

I’m Rod Benson for the NSW Council of Churches.