The Shanghai Pregnancy Hotline for Girls is experiencing its busiest season as summer vacation sees adolescents having sex without knowing how to prevent pregnancy.
(right-click, save as) Zhang Ming, in charge of the hotline, says they have been receiving more calls recently.
"Currently we receive over 50 calls everyday. Normally we only get about 30 calls a day."
The hotline has received more than 11,000 phone calls since it opened last July.
It has helped nearly 800 girls go to hospital for an abortion and 95 percent of them chose friends or boyfriends to accompany them. From their recent survey, only 3 percent of pregnant girls under 20 in Shanghai are willing to turn to their parents for help.
It says almost all of the girls pleaded with doctors not to tell their parents or put the abortion on record, with some desperate teens even turning to illegal clinics for abortions, which greatly increases the chances of their body being damaged.
Parents seldom talk about love or sex with their children. When they are informed that their daughters are pregnant, many just scold or even beat them.
The hotline called on parents to talk about sex with their children as early as middle school or even earlier.
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