British Government Reports Abortions Set New Record Highs, Jumped Over 200K
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 28, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A new report from the British government shows the number of abortions again hitting a record high in England. The numbers from the Office for National Statistics show 205,600 abortions last year with 198,500 done on British women and the rest on women from other countries.
The report indicates the number of abortions in 2008 will likely be higher as well, despite the promotion of the morning after pill and contraception. The 105,000 abortions in the first six months of 2008 is slightly higher than the figure from the first six of 2007.
The numbers show the British abortion rate is higher than the rest of western Europe, where abortions aren’t legalize as late into pregnancy.
The abortion figures also show the abortion rate — the percentage of pregnancies that end in abortion versus childbirth — is increasing and could eclipse the United States soon.
Nadine Dorries, Tory MP for Mid Bedfordshire, responded to the new report and said the report was sad news, especially in light of the votes by the British parliament against any new limits on abortions.
"Abortion is wrongly seen as an easy and trouble-free way of ending a pregnancy. It has moved from a resource that women turn to in an emergency and a point of crisis to becoming a form of contraception," she told the London Daily Mail.
"This has been brought about as a result of an ill-conceived notion that it is just a minor procedure with no side or lasting effects, but this is not the case," she said.
The Office for National Statistics found that repeat abortions are also a concern as early 4,000 women have had four or more abortions and dozens had eight or more. Even 82 teenagers were on their third abortion.
The stats also show one-third of abortions were repeat abortions, a figure that jumped 5 percent from lathe last two years.
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