WHO academic brands teen pregnancy 'greatest threat to mankind'

Sydney, March 14 : A World Health Organisation (WHO) academic has branded unwanted teenage pregnancies following bouts of binge drinking the "greatest threat to mankind", saying that it is contributing to the world's unsustainable population growth.

"Every single week a new city of 1.7 million could be created, and the current global population growth is unsustainable," news.com.au quoted John Gillebaud as telling a conference in Canberra via videolink from London.

"Each year, there are around 80 million unwanted pregnancies and 30 million of these are aborted. The inconvenient truth is, the world is already overpopulated and soon we may experience shortages of food and water," he added.

He also blamed reckless alcohol consumption for the rise in unwanted teenage pregnancies.

"Alcohol causes more unwanted teenage pregnancies than anything else," he said.

Liberal MP Mal Washer backed Gillebaud's suggestion that binge drinking was the leading cause of unwanted pregnancies among teenagers.

He also applauded the Rudd government's 53million-dollar binge drinking strategy, which includes a 20million-dollar television, radio and internet campaign to apprise youngsters of the consequences of binge drinking.

"I fully back the Rudd government on this issue, and I am sure it will go a long way in addressing the violence and irresponsible behaviour that binge drinking causes," he said.

ANI