If sex education has not achieved its ultimate goal of informing young adults the practice of safe sex, then unwanted pregnancies may arise. And because teenagers do have a choice as to how they are to live their lives, they have a choice whether to continue with the pregnancy or end it through abortion.

Abortion is the medical process of ending a woman’s pregnancy. It can be done in different ways, but the main goal is to remove the fetus or the embryo from the uterus. Abortion is legal in India, but most hospitals enforce notification laws or parental consent for all minors who intend to seek it. This means that before a teenager can go to a doctor and have it done, she have to inform at least one of her parents about it.

Abortion is not at all simple. Nor it is the easier way out of an unwanted pregnancy. Being pregnant at a very young age is already a big twist in a teenager’s life. Whatever choice she make about it, there will be negative consequences to face.

The most observed effects of abortion in teenagers are psychological in nature. Most of these teenagers succumb to the feeling of great sadness and sorrow, which can eventually lead to depression. Some teenagers develop a strong feeling of either guilt or anger. Some feel guilty because they chose to end their baby’s life. Some feel angry with their own selves because they failed to practice what was thought in sex education.

And many become surprised to see that they have developed intense emotional reaction to what they have done even though they have thought the whole thing over and over. It is as if it bugs them tremendously. Some teenagers tend to project a low self–image primarily because the incident is fresh in their minds and flashbacks recur from time to time. And in some extreme cases, there would be persistent nightmares and hallucinations.

Unwanted pregnancy leading to abortion is certainly one of the reasons why sex education is required by teenagers and even younger kids. They are supposed to know what these things are and what could happen if they end up choosing the wrong things in life. Being in a relationship is but normal. In fact, it is a necessary part of life. But as with everything else, there is always an amount of responsibility that comes with it – and that exactly what sex education should teach.