Never before have there been so many abortions in England and Wales as in 2023.

The latest figures to be released are for that year, which ended with 277,970 officially recorded abortions, a significant increase of 11% compared to the previous year, 2022.

The Abortion Act of Great Britain legalised the termination of pregnancies in 1967.

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With the Covid-19 pandemic, the authorities provided medication to facilitate abortions at home (a controversial measure that was to be temporary but was later maintained).

In 2023, the number of ‘home’ abortions already accounted for 73% of the total.

The data show that the number of abortions among women over 35 continues to rise (from 7.1 women per thousand in 2013 to 12.3 women per thousand in 2023). Among women under 18, the ratio is 7.8 per thousand.

The age group that most frequently terminates pregnancies is women between 20 and 24 years of age.

Why now two figures from 2023?

‘We have waited two years for this report, and the scale of what it reveals is staggering – 277,970 abortions, that averages to 762 abortions every day: 32 per hour and one abortion every two minutes,’ said Dawn McAvoy of the pro-life campaign Both Lives UK.

McAvoy points out that ‘there has been a two-year delay in reporting and now significant gaps in data remain’. She believes that “caution” should be exercised when analysing ‘abortions for disability and post-abortion complications with significant under-reporting of both’ and points to ‘serious concerns about transparency, policy direction, and the long-term impact on women, babies, and society’.

The expert considers that ‘the reasons for such a significant delay in publishing these figures remain unclear. During that two-year wait, abortion activists have sought to introduce the most significant changes to abortion legislation since 1967. Changes that remove safeguards including in-person care.’

In 2023, 7,000 people marched for life in London.