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C. Cowell, Problems of Adolescent Abortion, Oriho Panel 14, Toronto General Hospital.
"The younger the patient, the greater the gestation (age of the unborn), the higher the complicate rate....Some of the most catastrophic complication occur in teenagers."
"Eighty-seven per cent (87%) of 436 obstetrician and gynecologists has to hospitalize at least one patient this year due to complications of legal abortions."
M. Bulfin, M.D. OB-GYN Observer, Oct.-Nov. 1975.
But Pregnancy For Teenagers Has Higher Risks Too! This is incorrect. Earlier opinion had taught this. In recent years, however, it has been shown that teenage mothers have no more risks during pregnancy and labour, and their babies fare just as well as their more mature sister babies, if they have had good prenatal care.

THE RELIGIOUS VIEWPOINT.

A. CHRISTIANITY.

17. The Catholic Church has always denounced and opposed abortion. It has consistently defended the right of the unborn to live. The belief is that human life comes from God at the time of conception and that man is only the custodian of his life rather than the owner and abortion represents an act that denies the sanctity of life on the assumption that the woman is the owner of her life and that of her unborn child. In the book "Christian Marriage" by Jean de Fabregues, at pages 65 and 66 it is said:-

23. Rt. Hon'ble Lord Denning in his book "The Closing Chapter" says thus:-
"The unborn child .....it is not only the Christian doctrine but it is the doctrine of our law and our common law that the unborn child has a life of its own and a right of its own which is recognised by the law at least from the time of quickening, and the common law has always recognised that. Our great jurist, Sir William Blackstone, put it in this way:
Life is the immediate gift of God, a right inherent by nature in every individual, and it begins in contemplation, at law as soon as the infant is able to stir in its mother's womb.

30. In C and Anr. v. S and Ors. (1987 1 All E.R.1230), the first defendant was an unmarried woman, who was between 18 and 21 weeks pregnant. She wanted to terminate her pregnancy. Two medical practitioners certified in accordance with the provisions of Abortion Act. The man who caused the pregnancy sought on his own behalf and as next friend of the child en ventre sa mere an injunction restraining the first defendant from undergoing the termination and restraining the physicians and authorities from performing the operation. He conceded that as father of the child he had no locus standi to make an application but contended that he had a sufficient personal interest to do so because the proposed termination of the pregnancy would be a crime concerning the life of his child. He further contended that the unborn child was a proper party to the proceedings since it was the subject of the threatened crime. The Judge refused to grant an injunction holding that a foetus had no right to be a party and the father had failed to establish that an offence under the Infant life (Preservation) Act 1929 would be committed if the termination was carried out. The plaintiff filed an appeal. The appeal was dismissed and it was held that though the foetus of a gestational age of 18 to 21 weeks could be said to demonstrate real and discernible signs of life, the medical evidence was that such a foetus would be incapable of breathing either naturally or with the aid of a ventilator. Hence, the termination of the pregnancy of that length would not constitute an offence under the Act. Heilbron J. said that a foetus had no right of action until it was subsequently born alive and while it was unborn, it cannot be a party to an action.