BPAS expects new abortion statistics to confirm rise in abortions in England and Wales in 2006

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Tuesday, 19, Jun 2007 12:00

Dear Colleagues,

Please note that 2006’s English and Welsh abortion statistics are to be released tomorrow (Tues 19th June) by the Department of Health, expected at 9.30am.

The charity BPAS (British Pregnancy Advisory Service), which provides contraception and abortion, predicts that the new statistics will show a small but significant rise in the numbers of terminations of pregnancy carried out in England and Wales in 2006.

BPAS predicts that this increase will be in the region of 4% more abortions carried out in 2006, than in 2005.

By contrast, according to the Department of Health’s statistics in 2005 there was smaller rise of 0.4% from the previous year.

(In 2005, the total number of abortions taking place in England and Wales was 186,400 compared with 185,700 in 2004, making a rise of 0.4%.)

Ann Furedi, Chief Executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, which provides contraception and abortion services, said of this increase today:

‘We expect the official abortion statistics for 2006 to show a small but significant increase in the number of women in England and Wales ending an unwanted pregnancy. A rise in numbers will not surprise us, as BPAS’ doctors saw around 55,000 women for abortion care in 2006.

‘There are many reasons why women seek to end a pregnancy. Increasingly, women expect to be able to plan their families, and they cannot do this through contraception alone. Contraception sometimes fails and sometimes we fail to use it properly. Women will always need the option of abortion if their usual birth control has let them down.

‘We also know that social attitudes are changing with respect to abortion. Becoming a parent is increasingly viewed as a significant social responsibility and although abortion can be a difficult choice, we know that increasingly society is more understanding of the compelling reasons why a woman may need to end a pregnancy.

‘A rise in the number of abortions is not the problem in itself- the real problem is the number of woman experiencing unintended pregnancy. For some of these, abortion will be the solution to the very serious problem of being faced with an unplanned, unwanted pregnancy.’

ENDS

NOTES for EDITORS

BPAS, (the British Pregnancy Advisory Service) has been a registered charity since 1968, and is the UK’s leading sexual healthcare provider. As well as contraceptive advice and treatment, BPAS carried out around 55,000 terminations of pregnancy in 2006. 85% per cent of all BPAS’ not-for-profit treatments were carried out on behalf of the NHS. Typical non-NHS funded clients may have travelled from Eire, Northern Ireland or Italy, locations where access to safe, legal abortion remains restricted by law. BPAS has centres across England, Wales and Scotland. Please see www.bpas.org for further information.

BPAS bases the prediction of a 4% rise in abortions in 2006 on an observed increase in numbers of women coming to the charity for abortion care in 2006. This also accords with the provisional English and Welsh data for the first 9 months of 2006, recently issued by the Office of National Statistics in Health Statistics Quarterly (34). (See table 4.2 ‘Abortions: residents and non-residents; age and gestation (residents only)’) http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Product.asp?vlnk=6725

The UK public’s continued support for safe, legal abortion was demonstrated in a weighted, representative MORI poll from 2006. 63 per cent of a representative sample of GB adults agreed that ‘if a woman wants an abortion, she should not have to continue with her pregnancy’. 18 per cent disagreed with this. Please see:

http://www.bpas.org/press-office/archive_2006/poll_shows_support_for_legal_abortion.html

The Department of Health’s 2005 English and Welsh abortion statistics are here: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsStatistics/DH_4136852

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, (RCOG) states that ‘At least one-third of British women will have had an abortion by the time they reach the age of 45’ (see p1, ‘Care of women requesting induced abortion’, Evidence-based Guideline Number 7, Sept 2004).

For most women, having an abortion poses fewer medical risks than going through pregnancy and birth. See the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ (RCOG) information on this for more details.

The 1967 Abortion Act requires that two doctors must agree that the risk to a woman’s physical or mental health, or the risk to her children’s physical or mental health will be greater, if she continues with the pregnancy than if she ends it. This applies up until 24 weeks’ gestation. This Act does not apply in Northern Ireland.

Doctors agree that in countries where safe, legal abortion is not available, women’s lives are put at risk. Worldwide 68,000 women die each year after unsafe abortion, according to the World Health Organisation. Many thousands of others are left with severe long-term health problems as a consequence.