Abortions in England and Wales reach record high with over 200,000 in year

By Jane Kirby13th June 2019News EnglandAbortion, News England, NHS, Pregnancy

The number of abortions carried out in England and Wales is at its highest level, with older women and mothers behind the rise.

Data published by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) shows there were 200,608 abortions for women resident in England and Wales in 2018, up 4% on the 192,900 the previous year.

A further 4,687 abortions were carried out on non-residents, up slightly on the year before.

There has been a sharp rise over the last decade in the proportion of abortions to women who are already mothers.

In 2018, 56% of abortions (111,633) were to women who had had one or more previous pregnancies that resulted in a live or stillbirth, up 5% on the 106,550 the previous year.

Less than half (48%) of abortions in 2008 were to women who had already had one or more previous births.

Overall abortion rates have increased in the last decade for all women over the age of 25.

The rates for women aged 30 to 34 increased from 15.6 per 1,000 women in 2008 to 19.9 in 2018.

Among those aged 35 and over, they have risen from 6.7 per 1,000 women in 2008 to 9.2 per 1,000 women in 2018.

In total, 34,380 women aged 35 and over had an abortion in 2018, up 6% on the 32,330 the year before.

The data also showed there were 1,267 abortions to girls aged under 16 (0.6% of the total) in 2018.

Of these, 363 were to girls aged under 15 (0.2% of the total).

Overall, the abortion rate among under-18s has been falling for a decade.

Clare Murphy, director of external affairs at abortion provider the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, said: “The reasons for the increase in abortions for older women in England and Wales are complex.

“Accessible contraceptive services are often focused on the needs of younger women and women over the age of 25 can in particular find themselves excluded from schemes providing free, pharmacy access to emergency contraception.

“As so many women in the UK rely on pills and condoms as their main methods of contraception, it is vital that there is swift access to emergency options when those methods fail or a pill is missed.”

She said greater access to services was also needed for women who are already mothers.

“Unplanned pregnancy in the year after birth is not uncommon, particularly among women who are breastfeeding,” she said.

“However, it is also possible that over the longer term couples are making different decisions about family size and the number of children they can afford and feel able to properly care for.

“The two-child benefit cap was designed to influence reproductive decision-making and we are certainly aware of cases where that has been a factor in a woman’s decision to end a third, unplanned pregnancy.”

The new data showed 98% of abortions were funded by the NHS, the same level since 2013, but an increase from 91% in 2008.

Nine out of 10 abortions were carried out under 13 weeks’ gestation, with 80% under 10 weeks – a figure that has remained constant over the last decade.

Some 2% of abortions (3,269) were on grounds of serious disability.

In 2018, 39% of women undergoing abortions had one or more previous abortions.

Clare McCarthy, spokeswoman for the Right to Life charity, said the abortion figures represented a “national tragedy”.

She added: “Every one of these abortions represents a failure of our society to protect the lives of babies in the womb and a failure to offer full support to women with unplanned pregnancies.

“Proposals from abortion campaigners to remove legal restrictions around abortion and introduce abortion right to birth would likely see these numbers get even worse.”