Abortion as Birth Control, Report Shows Half of Women Having Abortions are Already Mothers

International   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   May 18, 2016   |   9:28AM   |   London, England

A new British government report points to evidence that more older women are relying on abortion as a method of birth control.

The Telegraph reports women in their 30s and 40s are having more abortions in England and Wales than ever before, according to a new abortion report from the British Department of Health. A similar trend is happening in the U.S., where abortions among teens are dropping rapidly and abortions among older women and women with children are becoming a larger percentage.

In the past decade, abortion rates have fallen among every age group except those over 30 in England and Wales, according to The Express. The government data shows women over 35 had the highest number of abortions on record for their age group in 2015. Among women over 35, the abortion rate increased 15 percent from 2005 to 2015, and the rate among women ages 30 to 34 increased 18 percent, according to the report.

According to the Telegraph, experts attributed the drop to older women who underestimate their fertility and fail to use contraception; when they experience “accidental pregnancies” as a result, more older women are resorting to abortion as a method of birth control.

The pro-abortion group British Pregnancy Advisory Service blamed the trend on programs that focus on providing contraception to younger women only. Spokeswoman Ann Furedi told The Express that BPAS “sees many women experiencing unwanted pregnancy after underestimating their ability to get pregnant – because of their age, irregular periods or a previous STI.”

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Many of the women having abortions already are mothers of born children, a possible indication that women are aborting unborn children to achieve their desired family size. More than half of women who had abortions (54 percent) in 2015 had other children, up from 47 percent in 2005, according to the data.

Another interesting factor, the 2015 report found that 70 percent of abortions in England were among women who are married or have a committed partner. This differs greatly from the U.S. where the majority of women having abortions are unmarried.

Also similar to the U.S., the report indicates that fewer teens in England and Wales are aborting their unborn babies when they become pregnant. According to the report, abortions among teens in both the under 16 and under 18 age groups dropped significantly in the past decade.

In total, 185,824 unborn babies lost their lives to abortion in England and Wales in 2015, slightly higher than 2014, according to the report.

Despite Americans’ opposition to the idea, some women have admitted to using abortion as a method of birth control. Polls consistently show that a majority of Americans, even some who identify as pro-choice, want abortions to be abolished or limited to rare circumstances during the first trimester.

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