How to make "younger abortion" a thing of the past

On May 19, Professor Chen Yijun of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences published an investigation report, saying that the trend of underage girls having abortions in China is getting worse and worse, with the proportion of underage patients reaching 40 to 50%. According to Chen Yijun's investigation, a case of a 9-year-old girl having an abortion was found in Nanning, Guangxi, and the person responsible was a 13-year-old boy. (Guangzhou Daily, May 20)

In recent years, the trend of abortion at a younger age has become a hot topic and a trend. Most statistics have shown that the trend of abortion at a younger age is intensifying, and this has gradually evolved into a social public health problem. So many young girls have been left with irreparable trauma after tasting the forbidden fruit for the first time, which is definitely worthy of social attention and a proposition that society should reflect deeply.

Why is it so? Everyone should understand that it is nothing more than the dual contradiction of lack of sex education and early sexual maturity of children. On the one hand, schools and families are very secretive about sex; on the other hand, as living conditions become increasingly affluent, children are becoming more and more sexually precocious. When children cannot obtain relevant knowledge from normal channels, their only choice is "evil ways", such as surfing the Internet, reading pornographic books, etc. The sexual knowledge obtained through these improper channels often only promotes the secretion of hormones, and it is difficult to systematically obtain safe sexual knowledge. The bad consequences are actually the "pain of youth" that cannot be eliminated.

The biggest harm of the younger age of abortion is not the operation itself, but the fact that children are afraid of their parents' blame and have limited financial resources. They dare not go to large formal hospitals, but only to some small hospitals, where neither the equipment nor the level of doctors can meet the safety standards. The biggest consequence is that the younger age of abortion is swallowing up the right of many children to become mothers in the future. Abortion itself will cause trauma to the body, and some informal hospitals will cause even greater trauma to children. This has long been a consensus.

Any social system usually starts with building a safety fence, and then setting up remedial measures to improve the system. However, as children are getting younger and younger, we have only been calling for the establishment of sex education classes. In fact, this can only be regarded as building a safety fence, and remedial measures are also indispensable. The so-called remedial measures are that when children are young and ignorant and pregnant, they should receive the safest protection, such as parents accompanying them to regular hospitals, and proper rest rights. To achieve this, on the one hand, we call for a more complete family education system, and on the other hand, we require relevant departments to step up rectification and handling of hospitals that perform illegal abortions.

The trend of younger abortions is a social issue that also requires the joint efforts of all society to deal with. We cannot just build a safety fence, but also promptly repair the "holes" that accidentally appear on the fence. Only by doing both well can we make the "younger abortions" a thing of the past. Even if it happens occasionally, they can be handled and cared for in the most appropriate way so that they will not lose the right to become mothers in the future.