Abortions hit record high of 207,000 a year

A RECORD 207,384 abortions were carried out last year, driven by growing numbers of women in their 30s choosing to terminate pregnancies.

It was the highest figure for England and Wales since abortion was legalised in 1968 and around 50 per cent up on the mid-1980s.

Department of Health statistics showed that rising demand mainly came from women in their early 30s and unmarried cohabitees. Pro-life campaigners blamed the instability of cohabiting relationships and the pressure on women to earn the highest possible income. They called for more restrictive laws to curb the ‘abortion culture’. The British Pregnancy Advisory Service, one of the country’s biggest abortion providers, said benefit cuts and the two- child limit on Universal Credit payments had ‘caused some women to end a pregnancy they would otherwise wish to continue because of the lack of Government backs laws limiting the support’. abolition abortion, BPAS, of criminal said which the

pandemic and lockdown are now influencing more women towards terminating pregnancies. The 207,384 figure suggests that between a fifth and a quarter of all pregnancies last year ended in an abortion. There were 41,549 carried out on women aged between 30 and 34 last year – up 55 per cent on the 26,701 in 2009.

Over the same period, abortions among women aged 35 and over increased by 36 per cent from 26,949 to 36,525. Some 49 per cent of women over 30 whose pregnancies were terminated had undergone previous abortions.

However, teenage abortion levels have dropped dramatically. In 2009 there were 57,983 abortions on women under the age of 20, but this dropped by 47 per cent to 30,707 last year.

Women in their 30s and older are now more than twice as likely to have an abortion as a teenager. A decade ago teen terminations were more common than those among older women. Abortions for girls under 16 have more than halved, from 3,823 in 2009 to 1,337 last year.

More than half of the abortions in England and Wales where partnership status was known were for unmarried cohabitees – 52 per cent. This compares to 24 per cent for single women and 16 per cent for married ones. A decade previously cohabitee abortions made up only 43 per cent. Nola Leach, of the Christian Action Research and Education charity, said: ‘Calls from some to make abortion even more available will only see these numbers increase.

‘This is not what the wider public wants and there’s clear evidence that people support abortion laws that provide more protections for women and that will help reduce the number of abortions.’

The Don’t Screen Us Out campaign group said 656 terminations were of unborn babies identified as having Down’s syndrome.