Shanghai's accidental pregnancy hotline has received more than 30,000 phone calls, mostly from teenagers or young adults, since it opened three years ago according to information released on Mother's Day yesterday.

A female vocational school student, who is six months pregnant and less than 20 years old, called the hotline yesterday and said she was unwilling to give birth, Shanghai Morning Post reported today.

The 6587-6866 hotline has helped about 2,000 pregnant youngsters. The service is free.

Dr Zhang Zhengrong, the hotline operator, said young women are becoming pregnant due to a lack of sexual education and awareness about contraceptives.

Abortions among pregnant teenagers would usually peak during the May Day holiday, which in past years was a seven-day vacation, although the other golden weeks also see a spike in abortions, according to an earlier report.

Some obstetric hospitals were fully booked for teenage abortions during holidays. Girls usually have abortions without notifying parents and have no maternity leave to allow them to make a full recovery. They may suffer from malnutrition and lack of rest after the procedure, the report said.

Hotline operators revealed that more high school students between the ages of 16 and 18, rather than young women in college, became pregnant last year.

The hotline said it receives almost 5,000 calls from teenagers every year, of which 20 to 30 percent are seeking advice regarding abortion.

Teenagers with gynecological diseases also increased 20 fold in the past 10 years in Shanghai.

(Shanghai Daily May 12, 2008)