Scotland Abortions Continue Increasing Despite Morning After Pill Push

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   May 27, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Scotland Abortions Continue Increasing Despite Morning After Pill Push

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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 27
, 2008

Glasgow, Scotland (LifeNews.com) — The number of abortions in Scotland has risen for the third straight year despite a heavy push for women to use the morning after pill. Abortion advocates claimed selling the Plan B drug over the counter would reduce abortion rates, but the new figures reveal the number of abortions rising again.

Abortions in Scotland rose four percent according to a report from the British national health Service and now number 13,703.

That increase came after NHS reported 13,081 abortions in 2006, up from 12,603 the previous year — an increase of nearly 3.8 percent

The new numbers represent an all-time high for the number of abortions done in that part of Great Britain since abortion was legalized in 1967.

Not only is the increased promoting of the morning after pill resulting in more abortions, not less, the number of women having repeat abortions is increasing as well.

NHS reports more than a quarter of women, 26.3 percent, who had an abortion in Scotland last year had at least one prior abortion before that. That’s 3,600 women who had one or more abortions prior, according to the government’s statistics.

The new figures also show the number of girls under the age of 16 having abortions has reached its highest levels as well. In 2007, 370 such young teenagers had abortions.

Abortion advocates have claimed higher use of the Plan B drug through over the counter sales will result in a drop in unintended pregnancies and fewer abortions.

However, research and reports show that’s not happening.

Dr. Joseph Stanford, associate professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine, says studies he and fellow researchers have done show a lower effectiveness rate than the 89 percent Barr Laboratories claims.

"We did more a precise meta-analysis that shows it’s effective only 72 percent of the time, and even that number is optimistic," he indicated.

He also told the newspaper that studies from Europe, China and the United States show that the morning after pill does not reduce abortions.