The rise of the career woman abortion as teen terminations fall

WOMEN in their early thirties are now more likely to have abortions than teenagers. Most of them were unmarried but living with a partner, according to Department of Health figures.

They suggest that the pressure to get rid of an unwanted child is now felt the most strongly by older women facing career and financial stress and the lack of a man willing to be a father.

Laura Perrins, co-editor of the Conservative Woman website, said: ‘These figures are worrying and show how much pressure women are under both financially, careerwise and emotionally. It is a wake-up call.’

Jill Kirby, an author and family commentator, said: ‘It is disturbing that abortion is so high among women who are not just making mistakes or having one-night stands.

‘There are many women who want to have children but then for financial or relationship reasons decide not to.’ A total of 184,571 abortions were carried out in England and Wales last year – down slightly on 2004.

The greatest fall compared with a decade ago was among teens. There were nearly 6,000 fewer terminations among the under18s and nearly 5,000 fewer among 18 and 19year-olds. In 2004, 18 in every 1,000 under-18s had an abortion but that fell to 11 last year.

The data is further evidence that the ‘Facebook generation’ have less interest in drinking, drugs and smoking than previous cohorts. But the abortion rate among women aged between 30 and 35 rose to 16.5 in every 1,000 last year, up from 14.5 in 2004.

The rising toll of abortion among women in their thirties is the latest evidence of the growing difficulties of forming a family for a generation raised to assume they will gain high educational qualifications and then work throughout their lives.

The average age at which a woman has a baby is now 30, up from 26 in the 1970s; the average age at which a woman marries for the first time is now also 30, up from 22 back in the early 1970s. The Office for National Statistics has linked these trends to the increased importance of careers, the high price of housing, instability of relationships, and ‘rising opportunity costs of childbearing’.

At the same time there are regular reminders of the risks of delaying childbearing. Last month senior fertility specialist Professor Geeta Nargund warned that women who want families should start trying before they reach the age of 30.

Yesterday’s abortion figures underlined not only the increasing likelihood of abortion for older women but also the link between abortion and cohabitation. In 2004 some 29 per cent of women described themselves as ‘single with partner’. Last year that proportion had reached 52 per cent.

More than four out of five of all women who had abortions last year were single. Sixteen per cent were married and 3 per cent were separated or divorced.