Abortion
The Maternity Protection Act (MPA) authorizes certified doctors to perform artificial abortion on women pregnant 21 weeks or less when the following conditions are met:
1) Pregnancy or delivery is likely to jeopardize the pregnant woman’s health in either physically or economically
2) The woman got pregnant because of rape
Whether the requesting woman meets the above conditions is up to the certified doctors’ judgment.
341,588 reported abortions in 2001 (Awakening: More than the known figure of 0.2% of church goers! )
The number of reported abortions in 2001 was 341,588, of which only 192 were because of rape. All others were performed for protection of maternal health either physically or economically. Majority of abortions are performed in early stage (11 weeks of gestation) of pregnancy, by which time no reporting of still births are required.
Were you stunned about the figures above? Then, look at this...
1.17 million abortions in 1955
The number of abortions has declined to a quarter since 1955, when the number hit 1.17 million.
Urgency of Teenage Ministry/ School Ministry
However the number of abortions of teenagers per age group 15-19 has steadily increased perhaps because of younger sexual activities and non-use of oral contraceptive pills (OCP has not been approved until quite recently). Currently approximately 11.9 per 1000 teenage girls undergo abortions annually (2003), more than doubled since 1995 when the figure was 6. MHLW aims to reduce unwanted pregnancies and abortions in teenagers by half for next 10 years.
The situation had alarmed the society. The public health figures begin to work on it. WHAT ABOUT US? The honorable field workers, are we doing anything? The sending base, are we doing anything? Can we do anything about this?
How about sending people that are specialized in this field, feed them on these information, train them to participate in one of those efforts that the government is trying to do. When religions measurement and moral ethics were raised, are we Christians able to be of influence?
Notes: In 2001, 13.6% of the mothers who went through abortions were below 20 and 45.5% of the mothers were from 20-29. 56.6% of the abortions were less than 7 weeks.
References: www.jpha.or.jp/jpha/english/ Japan Public Health Association, Tokyo
