Letter: It's not Guam teens that have been getting abortions
Tim Rohr
A recent PDN story noted Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero’s online chat with someone from a group which calls itself Famalao’an Rights. According to the story, the group is a “reproductive justice initiative” and one of its focuses is “ensuring accurate, fact-based and data-driven information is being shared regarding social, economic and other implications on the lack of accessible abortion services within the island community.”
Perhaps Famalao’an Rights may want to share some of that “fact-based and data-driven information” with the governor, who apparently still believes that it is teenagers who are the problem.
“Parents should recognize their teenage children could be having sex and they need to be educated about what could happen. Parents should give their kids the means to prevent pregnancy with contraception,” said the governor.
The actual “fact-based and data-driven information” tells a different story. Abortion reports dating from 2008 to the present show that it isn’t teenagers who are getting abortions, but their parents.
In 2017, the last year Guam still had a full time abortionist, of the 239 reported abortions, only five were procured by teens while 172 abortions were procured by women 23 years and older, 21 of who were 38 years and older, or old enough to be the teen’s parents.
Tim Rohr is a resident of Agat.
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