Uncontrolled Child Abuse

How fortunate we are to be living in 2012 and not in the primitive world of 1982, a year in which England did not win either the World Cup or the European Song Contest, the Falklands War was fought and the Mary Rose was raised from the bed of the Solent.  How things must have progressed in the 30 years since the article below was published in edition 14 of ALDU's Newsletter detailing the failure to prosecute the sexual abuse of minors.  
But hang on...in 2011 there were 3,258 abortions carried out on girls under 16 years old and a further 4,494 carried out on girls aged 16, a large proportion of whom must have taken part in sexual intercourse before their 16th birthday.

In addition to these abortions, there will have been some live births to girls under 16;  the statistics for these births may be available somewhere but are difficult to find because the Office for National Statistics lists only total number of births to women aged under 20, amongst whom are presumably those born to girls of 11 - 16.  

We have seen some prosecutions recently for gangs described as 'grooming' girls for sex but these are only the most egregious cases.  What of all the other thousands of instances.  Do the abortionists ever report the circumstances to the police?  Do the police or the Department of Health ever ask abortionists about these sorts of cases?  

No-one wants to see young women having to go to court to give evidence but, as the article below says, it makes no sense to enact laws and not to enforce them.  This seems to be an endemic and essential part of abortion practice - see for example the cavalier way in which the prosecuting authorities have treated the law requiring two doctors to give consent in good faith that an abortion is justified.  Consent forms are signed in blank and left ready to be used whenever needed.   The current Secretary of State has said he will do something about this but five months after he described the situation as "urgent" no-one has yet been prosecuted or even charged.

How good it is to live in such a civilised, modern world......er..........

Summer 1982 Number 14

Schoolgirl Pregnancies and The Law

It is quite clear that there are "no go" areas within the Criminal Law, that is, areas where it is the policy of the government not to enforce the law. No doubt in some cases the makers of this policy have the best of intentions.  But the effect is that criminals go unpunished, and so are encouraged to commit more and more crimes.  Furthermore, the basic principle, of making a law and then not enforcing it, is wrong.  It is wrong that law enforcement should become a matter of private judgment of the Law Enforcement Officers; and it is harmful to the fabric of our society as a whole, because it undermines the principle of the Rule of Law.  If a law works injustice it should be changed, not quietly ignored.  It just makes nonsense of the principle that our country is governed by the will of the people, if laws, made by those who are elected by the people to make them, are ignored by those who are appointed to enforce them.

Every year some 4,000 girls aged between 11 and 15 become pregnant.  About half of all these pregnancies endd in abortion.  Subject to certain exceptions it is an indictable offence for a man to have unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 16 (Sexual Offences Act 1956 s.6).  In nearly every case, whether a pregnancy terminates with the birth of a live child, or with the birth of a dead child as is the case of an abortion, clearly the doctors concerned and the D.H.S.S.* know that an offence has taken place.  Surely it is their duty to report this to the police, and for the police to bring a prosecution.  In most cases the identity of the criminal should not be difficult to prove.

If all these cases were vigorously followed up by the police, the number of schoolgirl pregnancies would fall very rapidly. The fact that this is not happening is clear evidence that both the D.H.S.S. and the medical profession and the police are neglecting their duty, and are turning a blind eye to these thousands of breaches of the law.

It is no doubt an increasingly common attitude in our society that it is not a very serious matter for children under 16 to have intercourse with one another, and indeed in the few cases where prosecutions are brought, this is almost invariably where the man involved is an adult. It does not fall within the purposes of this Association to comment on the desirability of teenage intercourse; although the fact that as a result there are today thousands of school-age mothers who are unable either to support their children adequately or to complete their education because of being responsible for a child, is no doubt a grave social evil.

What is of concern to this Association is the fact that about 2,000 unborn children are killed every year simply because their mothers are of school age, and as a result the children are seen as a liability. These 2,000 deaths could be prevented if the law were properly enforced. We urge all members of this Association who have any influence in the appropriate quarters to use their influence to encourage prosecutions of the fathers in all cases of pregnancies of unmarried girls under 16.


* For Younger readers the D.H.S.S. was the Department of Health and Social Security