Abortion Numbers in Scotland Rise Again Despite OTC Morning After Pill 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 29, 2007
Glasgow, Scotland (LifeNews.com) — The abortion figures in Scotland are on the rise again even though the nation allows the morning after pill to be sold over the counter. Abortion advocates there claimed the policy move would reduce abortion rates, but the new figures reveal the number of abortions done there has increased twice since it was adopted.
The Scotland government reported 13,081 abortions in 2006, up from 12,603 the previous year — an increase of nearly 3.8 percent.
The figures represent an all-time high for the number of abortions done in that part of Great Britain since abortion was legalized in 1967.
Teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 and young women aged 20-24 account for about 48 percent of all abortions done there while older women have lower abortion rates.
Some of the other figures the new government abortion numbers revealed include a figure of 67.3 percent for the number of early-term abortions done. In 1992 55.8 percent of the abortions were done before 11 weeks, so the number is on the rise.
The government reported that the abortion rate is higher in the NHS Tayside area compared to the Lothian and Greater Glasgow figures. The islands (Orkney, Shetland and Western Isles) had the lowest abortion rates of any region in Scotland.
The new data also shows that the reliance on the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug is also increasing as 59.1 percent of abortions were done with the abortion pill in 2006, up from 16.4 percent when it was first introduced in 1992.
The drug has already killed two British women and is responsible for killing 12 women worldwide and injuring more than 1,100 women in the United States alone.
About 200,000 women have abortions annually in Britain.
