Jakarta – Abortion is on the rise in Indonesia, especially among unmarried women, and has now reached an alarming level, a family planning group said yesterday.

Data collected by Indonesian Family Planning Association (PKBI) shows that 3 million Indonesian women had abortions last year. Of that number, 600,000 were unmarried. PKBI head Azrul Azwar yesterday said the high number of abortions is partly due to a lack of knowledge in Indonesia about contraception.

The prevalence of terminated pregnancies has also been attributed to social traditions, especially in West Java, where many people feel that if a woman has not managed to find a husband by the age of 20, she must not be beautiful or sexy enough to attract young men. In order to boost their chance of getting a husband, many young women will consent to sex with a man, hoping he will marry them. But all too often the women fall pregnant and are dumped by the guy.

Azrul said he has sent a proposal to Education Minister Yahya Muhaimin, requesting that sex education be included in curricula of elementary, junior and senior high schools. Head of the Education Ministrys quality human development department, Soeharto, said the ministry agrees with the proposal.

He said sex education and lessons on morality will be taught to school students, to discourage them from fooling around and creating unwanted pregnancies. With the intrusion of lax Western moral standards through films and the Internet, the government fears the incidence of casual sex will increase next year, and thus the number of abortions will also rise.

But Soeharto is optimistic that sex education and lessons on religion and morality will enable the government to reduce the level of abortion.