The number of abortions in England and Wales has risen sharply, with a charity saying that growing financial pressure on families could mean it continues to rise.
The number increased by 17%, from 105,488 between January and June 2021 to 123,219 over the same period in 2022, according to a report by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
The figures, which are for only the first six months of last year due to a backlog in processing forms, come after record abortion figures were published last year, in a trend experts said was driven by financial uncertainty caused by the Covid pandemic.
There were 214,869 terminations during 2021, the highest number since the procedure became legal in Great Britain through the 1967 Abortion Act. The full statistics for 2022 are scheduled for release on 1 January 2024.
The statistics for the first six months of 2022 show:
The majority of abortions took place in the early stages of pregnancy: 67% up to seven weeks gestation; 93% up to 12 weeks, and 98% up to 17 weeks gestation.
Medically induced procedures accounted for 86% of abortions, with 97% of these occurring before 10 weeks.
This month a woman was sent to jail for procuring a medically induced late-term abortion during the pandemic, which led to calls from experts and MPs for a change to the law to prevent more women being sent to prison.
Clare Murphy, the chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas), said the new figures suggested the cost of living crisis was already having an impact on women’s pregnancy choices.
“The financial pressures on households will have forced women and their partners to make sometimes tough decisions around continuing or ending a pregnancy,” she said.
Murphy said demand on Bpas services was growing – a situation she said was unlikely to change in a period of rising interest rates and high inflation. Previous research by the charity showed that women from poorer backgrounds are almost three times more likely to have abortions than those from the wealthiest backgrounds.
“We are potentially looking at very significant changes in childbearing and family size in the years to come, particularly as women choose to start their families later, limit their family size or simply decide they do not wish – or cannot afford – to have children,” she said.
Janet Barter, the president of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH), said the rising number of abortions was not because the procedures were becoming easier to access. “It’s actually not, it’s getting more difficult to access because waiting times are going up because funding is limited,” she said.
The FSRH has launched a plan to “drastically improve” access to contraception. Barter said: “We really need to have a conversation about why the abortion rate is going up, about access to contraception, about stigma and about why it’s difficult for women to control their fertility. We need to see abortion as part of women’s healthcare, part of women’s choices about how they care for themselves.”
The anti-abortion charity Right To Life UK described the figures as a “national tragedy” and called for the reinstatement of in-person appointments before abortions take place.
A DHSC spokesperson said it would continue to fund free contraception through the GP contract and public health grant: “In addition, we recently announced £25m to create more women’s health hubs, to improve access to services such as contraception, as part of our women’s health strategy.”
