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Taiwan tops list of single teen moms

The proportion of single teenage mothers is higher than in neighboring Asian countries and the nation sees inbetween 500,000 to 1 million abortions a year, according to a report released yesterday.

The report, made available by the Chinese Christian Relief Association, said that while 320,000 children are born in Taiwan each year, it is absolutely certain that abortions -- including those by adult women -- exceed this number, and may be as high as between 500,000 to one million, according to estimates by obstetricians and gynecologists.

The proportion of Taiwanese junior college and vocational school students with sexual experience is also increasing, the report said.

According to the report, the proportion of single teenage mothers is higher than in neighboring Asian countries.

The report went on to say that when Yen Yu-ju (顏玉如), deputy director of the Mercy Memorial Foundation Sexual Education Center, arranged the results of surveys of teenage sex in Taiwan from the past 20 years, she found that the proportion of male students in the fifth year of vocational school with sexual experience increased from 20.7 percent to 35.2 percent between 1980 and 1988, and that female students with sexual experience increased from 4 percent to 6.9 percent during the same period.

The report also said that, between 1988 and 1997, the number increased to 37.2 percent for boys, but among girls the number exploded from 6.9 percent to 26.7 percent.

A similar survey by the Bureau of Health Promotion for the years 1995 to 2000, referred to by the report, found that the proportion of boys with sexual experience increased from 10.4 percent to 13.9 percent among boys during that period, and for girls, the proportion increased from 6.7 percent to 10.4 percent.

The report said that during the 11 years from 1986 to 1996, the number of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 who had given birth was 15 to 17 in 1,000, much higher than the numbers in Japan, with 4 in 1,000, and Korea, with 11 in 1,000.

Of the 320,000 children born in Taiwan each year, about 16,000 are born to teenage girls, which means that, on average, one out of 20 children in Taiwan are born to teenage girls.
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