5 of 5

14-year-old's abortion controversy in Britain:

• BMA explains criteria for giving consent | Doctors who performed the abortion were acting within the law provided the teenager was "competent" to give her consent, the British Medical Association said yesterday (The Telegraph, London)
  
  
• A girl's right to choose | A mother is furious because her 14-year-old daughter's school arranged an abortion without telling her. Were they right? (The Guardian, London)
  
  
• A daughter's dilemma | A young person must also be able to give consent for a medical procedure themselves, although they must, of course, be encouraged as far as possible to talk to their family (Editorial, The Guardian, London)
  
  
• Abortion girl: who will take the blame? | No one was willing to take responsibility yesterday over the 14-year-old girl sent for an abortion without the knowledge of her mother (The Telegraph, London)
  
  
• Mother may not know best, but she should always be told | The case of Michelle Smith, the 14-year-old whose school "outreach worker" arranged an abortion for her without informing her parents, is one of those moral nightmares in which it is horribly easy to see everybody's point of view (Tom Utley, The Telegraph, London)
  
  

Pregnancy & abstinence in Britain:

• Number of England and Wales babies born out of wedlock in rises to 41 percent | The rise in the number of babies born to unmarried parents has been dramatic in recent years, partly as a result of teenage pregnancies—which show no sign of decline—and partly because fewer people see the need to get married (The Telegraph, London)
  
  
• 'The libertarian experiment has failed; abstinence is the way forward' | The Silver Ring Thing is coming to Britain, doubtless to a chorus of mockery from our libertarian media and commentators who resolutely refuse to see that the do-anything-you-like experiment of the past few decades has been a disastrous failure, and at tremendous human cost (Ann Widdecombe, The Independent, London)
  
  
• Oral sex lessons to cut rates of teenage pregnancy | Encouraging schoolchildren to experiment with oral sex could prove the most effective way of curbing teenage pregnancy rates, a government study has found (The Observer, London)
  
  
• Joy of sex education | America's virgin soldiers are on their way - ignoring the dangers of abstinence for teenagers (George Monbiot, The Guardian, London)
  
  
• How to sort out our teenage-sex muddle | The Silver Ring Thing may sound like a programme on body-piercing for the under-fives, but it is actually a group of American virgins and evangelists who are visiting British cities, including Glasgow, urging teenagers to abstain from sex until they are married (Gillian Bowditch, The Scotsman)
  
  
• Teens told a silver ring and a vow of chastity are best way to combat sexual epidemic | Worried that their children are bombarded with words, clothes and pictures that "talk dirty", six mothers are plotting a revolution against a society seen to be saturated with sex (The Guardian, London)
  
  
• Over sex and over here: US virgins to preach restraint to British teens | Young Americans pledged to sexual purity are bringing their Silver Ring Thing road show to the UK (The Independent, London)
  
  

Television:

• For 'indecency' watchdogs, work is a day full of TV | The Parents Television Council monitors shows and uses its data to put pressure on the FCC (Los Angeles Times)
  
  
• Rival KOCE-TV bidder appeals | A religious network says it, not a foundation vowing to keep a PBS station public, was tops (Los Angeles Times)
  
  
• Family channel Pax trying out edgier lineup | "The definition of appropriate family viewing has really expanded to include shows like 'American Idol' and 'Fear Factor,"' NBC Entertainment senior vp Sheraton Kalouria said (Hollywood Reporter)
  
  

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May (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48