A number of young Bermudian women are beginning to see abortion as a means of contraception, it was claimed yesterday.

The news comes after statistics released by the Registrar General last week revealed the number of births to unmarried teenagers last year to be marginally higher than figures for the previous three years.

Government's acting Chief Medical Officer Dr. Brenda Davidson said teenagers get an unfair amount of criticism and noted that recent hospital figures showed teen pregnancy rates are falling.

She said Bermuda's proportion of teen pregnancies are on par with many other western countries, although she acknowledged that, given its size, information about family planning can be disseminated more easily.

One concerned woman, who asked not to be named, also revealed that she knew of some young, pregnant women, many in their teens and 20s, who have taken plane tickets and money given to them by the fathers of the children for abortions and gone overseas on expensive shopping sprees instead.

The woman, who herself is the child of an unmarried, teen mother, called on Government to get serious about dealing with the rising number of out-of-wedlock births experienced not just by teenaged girls, but also by older women.

She said she believed information about family planning needs to be made more widely available.

However, Dr. Davidson said the Department of Health currently runs a family planning clinic at their offices on Victoria Street which has an average of 6,000 to 7,000 visitors a year.

She said information about teen pregnancy was widely available, but the problem was motivating people to make use of it.

"That is a whole different issue, but we actually do a lot of information work to try and get the message across. We're constantly racking our brains to come up with new ideas."

She noted that, while it is quite difficult for someone to get an abortion in Bermuda, in many non-western countries, abortion is seen to be a viable method of birth control.

"There will be an unknown number of girls who go away to the United States for abortions but we have no handle on how many do that. I would say that a small minority of girls in Bermuda do choose that option."

And she pointed to recent statistics from the hospital that total teen deliveries only formed 6.3 per cent of all deliveries and that 76.6 per cent of teens who become pregnant are 17 or over.

Dr. Davidson said only 0.6 per cent of all deliveries in Bermuda are to children under the age of 16.

She said: "I don't think anyone has a right to tell a woman who is over 18 that they shouldn't have a child. It is a personal decision for them and you have to respect their choice."

She added: "For the second year in a row the stats show that teen pregnancy rates have fallen in almost all age groups. This includes deliveries as well as terminations. Obviously Government must be doing a good job, but I also feel the teens, who so often get bad press, should be recognised!"

But Dr. Davidson said: "The numbers seem to indicate that we should be targeting more of our efforts at the 16 to 17 year olds. Girls 17 years and over who become pregnant have different social, interpersonal and economic needs and problems from younger girls, and have more limited support systems."

However, Family Learning Centre director Martha Dismont said she believed the amount of unwed, teenage mothers was disproportionately high in Bermuda, and that this needs to to be addressed with a revitalised campaign to educate young people about planning for the future.

And the unnamed woman spoke out about a number of unmarried mothers that she knows, in their teens and in their twenties, who currently see abortion as an easy way out of getting pregnant.

The woman said she knew of some people going away and having the procedure done as many as three times in order to get rid of unwanted pregnancies.

"The same situation seems to be happening again and again. Its pretty common knowledge that it goes on. It's an expensive procedure but it seems that a lot of these women are getting plane tickets and money from the men they slept with so they can get abortions away so their parents don't find out about it."

Ms Dismont responded: "I wouldn't be surprised if that is going on. It seems they think that that is an easy way to get it taken care of."

The unnamed woman added that she knew of cases where women have taken the money and a plane ticket but, instead of spending it on the procedure, decide to use it on shopping sprees abroad.

She said: "A lot of these so-called impoverished, abandoned mothers are sporting the best apparel... Gucci, Coach, Louis Vutton, Chanel, Victoria's Secret, etc."

She said the responsibility for seeking family planning advice needed to rest on the shoulders of the individuals themselves.

"These unwed mothers need to step back and assess their behaviour honestly. Is there anything that they can do to avoid certain situations or improve their lives or standards?"

The woman said she had experience on many unwed mothers who "expect and indeed rely on `handouts' and blame everyone else for their circumstances. What they obviously never learned is that everyone should take responsibility for their own sexual activity."

She called on the community, and especially Government, to step up the campaign to educate women about contraception and family planning.

But she said she believed Government had "stepped back" from the issue and asked: "Why aren't they being more aggressive about it? If they are spending on this and that, why not come up with something and review the situation.

The woman suggested that Government be helped by pharmacies, general practitioners, gynaecologists, churches, AIDS prevention organisations and other family-oriented organisations.

She stressed that the onus of responsibility was on the people themselves, who need to "stamp out this unwed father-mother trend that does not seem to benefit the children and perpetuates itself, generation to generation."