In Reply: Different Views on Adolescent Abortion

This is in reply to several letters that have been received by Pediatrics commenting on our article published in Pediatrics in March 1993, entitled "Adolescent Abortion: Views of the Membership of the American Academy of Pediatrics" (91:561-565). The letter from Patricia Lee June, MD, makes several points that merit further discussion. First, she defends the safety of childbirth to adolescents, based on maternal mortality statistics. This is certainly justified, but, as we pointed out in the paper, the risks of adolescent pregnancy are seen more clearly instead in problems of social functioning.