Abortions at record level

A RECORD number of abortions are taking place in Cheshire - and older women are fuelling the rise.

The latest figures from the Department For Health And Social Care show residents had 3,207 across the region abortions in

2018.

That was up from

3,019 abortions in 2017 and is the highest number since records at a local authority level began in 2012.

That year

2,937 abortions took place.

But over the years, abortions have been falling among younger women.

In fact, girls under the age of 18 accounted for just 151 abortions that took place in 2018, the lowest on modern record.

At the same time, women aged 35 and over across Cheshire had 497 abortions the second-highest number since 2012.

There were

504 abortions among this age range in 2011.

The figures include residents only, and not those who may have travelled from overseas.

The current law is that abortions can take place in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy in England, Scotland and Wales.

Two doctors must approve the procedure and agree that having the baby would pose a greater risk to the physical or mental health of the woman than a termination.

Abortions were illegal before the introduction of the 1967 Abortion Act, which initially allowed them to take place up to 28 weeks.

This was reduced to 24 weeks in 1990.

Recently, the Royal College Of Obstetricians And Gynaecologists published a report on improving healthcare for women.

The report said: “Women continue to face many barriers when trying to access abortion care in the UK.

“These include the dwindling numbers of NHS healthcare professionals taking part in abortion care, very few units with experience of caring for women requiring late gestation abortions or women with complex medical co-morbidities, and service tariffs that do not always reflect the costs of care in difficult cases.”

Among the recommendations, they called for the DHSC to allow women to use a drug to achieve early medical abortion at home.

Across England,

191,555 abortions took place in 2018.

That was up from 184,301 the year before and is again, the highest number that modern records show.