The number of British girls under the age of 14 having an abortion shot up a shocking 21 percent in 2007.

Abortion rates went up for all age groups in England and Wales, but this jump for those under 14 constituted the most dramatic increase, according to new figures from the Department of Health. The study also revealed a 10 percent rise in abortions for those under the age of 16.

More and more girls are choosing to end the life of the unborn child growing within them at a time when they themselves are barely out of puberty.

Officials like Gill Frances, the chair of the Teenage Pregnancy Independent Advisory Group, have blamed governmental failure to adequately fund contraceptive services for this growing problem. Yet contraceptives clearly are not the solution—they don’t even come close to addressing the problem. Rather, availability of contraceptives for unwed teenagers is part of the very culture that has encouraged and accepted promiscuity among our youth. And this promiscuity, together with the spread of the abortion culture, is what has caused the tragedy of teen abortion.

In addition to the murder of an unborn child, abortion has very real physical and emotional risks for the mother. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse published a study in February 2000, for example, showing that women who abort their babies are five times more likely to engage in subsequent substance abuse than women who carry their babies to full term. When a would-be mother is a child herself, the physical and emotional scarring would only be more acute.

With or without pregnancy or abortion, however, sexual activity among our youth is hurting them—a reality that advocates of contraceptive availability ignore. Read “Sexual Health: What Every High School and College Student Needs to Know” for more on the risks associated with early sex experience.

God commands, in 1 Corinthians 6:18, to flee fornication. That is the solution to the rising problem of teen abortions. Parental teaching of God’s way of life regarding sex and marriage is where society must start in solving the teen pregnancy problem. For a detailed explanation of this subject, read The Missing Dimension in Sex by Herbert W. Armstrong.