Ms Christina Zampas:

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has been very clear that adolescents should be involved in the decision-making process regarding abortion and has called for the removal of parental consent requirements. The latter would include guardian consent requirements. Adolescents are an especially vulnerable group because of the stigma not just around abortion but also around adolescent sexuality and what that could mean in terms of the relationship with the family and the parents. There is also the question of their vulnerability in carrying a pregnancy - their physiological vulnerability. Adolescents are at a much higher risk of having something go wrong with the pregnancy and risking serious disability because of it because their bodies are not formed enough to carry a pregnancy. That is a medical fact. I think it is 15 times more likely - I am not sure of the exact number - that something would go wrong.

In light of that, I want to make a comment about Professor Binchy's remark in terms of there being no evidence that adolescents are suicidal when they are pregnant. Actually, it is the opposite. There is evidence to show that adolescents who are pregnant and who do not have access to abortion are suicidal and it is one of the causes of death of pregnant young girls especially in countries with really restrictive abortion laws because of the stigma attached, because of their sexuality and their pregnancy. I just wanted to clarify that.