Pregnant girls can now obtain legal abortions anonymously in the Maternal and Child Care Service Center of southern Xuanwu District in the national capital of Beijing.

The service center was set up to take care of the reproductive health of youngsters, and doctors will not only carry out operations, but also provide information on methods of contraception and sexual health.

Before the center was set up, doctors tried to give lectures on conception control in some high schools and publicized their hot-line number.

The action, nevertheless, aroused consternation and worries among quite a few parents and some argued that the lectures would stain their children's innocence.

But youngsters knew much more about sex than just the basic biology, and parents should not try to shun reality, said Zong Chunshan, director of the Beijing Legal and Psychological Consulting Center for Minors, on Wednesday.

The growing numbers of adolescent pregnancies is becoming a global problem. Approximately 14 million adolescent girls get pregnant accidentally worldwide each year, and more than 4.4 million choose abortion.

China is faced with problems menacing the reproductive health of young people including the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and AIDS, and increasing numbers of unwanted adolescent pregnancies.

China set up its first rescue center for pregnant girls in February in Chongqing Municipality in the southwest, and similar centers have been established in the cities of Hangzhou and Jinan in its coastal eastern area, Chengdu, the capital of southwestern Sichuan province, and Harbin, the capital of the country's northernmost province.

(Xinhua News Agency December 3, 2003)