Never in the almost 60 years since the introduction of the Abortion Act (1967) have there been so many voluntary terminations of pregnancy in England and Wales.

The government of the UK presented the final figures of 2022, which show that there were 251,377 abortions in England and Wales (a 17% increase compared to 2021, when the total figure was 214,256).

98% of the abortions in 2022 were performed under “Ground C”, which has to do with “a risk, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated, of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman”.

According to the report of the Health and Social Care Department, “82% of abortions were for those whose marital status was given as ‘single’ - a proportion that has remained roughly constant for the last 10 years”.

Women in the early 20s

Most women sought abortion at the ages of 20, 21 and 22 are the ages at which most women sought abortions.

The “repeat abortions" (women who had and abortion which was not the first one) rose from 91,313 in 2021 up to 102,689 in 2022, a 12.5% increase. 

Financial factors had either mainly or partly affected the decision to end a pregnancy for 57% of 1,300 women surveyed by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service this year. Meanehile, a 36% said they had been unable to get the contraception they wanted or had faced delays, leading to unwanted pregnancies and subsequent abortions.

There were 3,124 disability-selective abortions in 2022, and 88% of abortions were performed before the 10^th week of pregnancy.

A “national tragedy”

Pro-life group Right To Life UK has described these newest figures as a “national tragedy” and called for the “the urgent reinstatement of in-person appointments”, an opinion shared by 71% of women, according to recent polls.

“Every one of these abortions represents a failure of our society to protect the lives of babies in the womb and a failure to offer full support to women with unplanned pregnancies”. 

Surveys in the UK show that 70% of women want the current time limit on abortion of 24 weeks to be lowered. This limit is higher than in most countries in Europe. Only 16% support the proposals of some political groups to completely decriminalise abortion.