99,149 abortions in Spain last year

Almost one hundred thousand lives of unborn were terminated in Spain last year, according to the newest report issued by the Spanish Health Ministry.

According to the official statistics, 99,149 abortions were performed in 2019, the highest figure in Spain since 2013, when over 108,000 terminations of pregnancy were practiced.

Almost one in three (29%) abortions were performed after the ninth week of pregnancy.

In 91% of the cases, it was the mother who asked to terminate the pregnancy. Only in 6% of the abortions there was a “serious risk for the life or health of the mother” and in 3% a “high risk of anomalies in the foetus”, the Health Ministry statistics show.

Women aged 25-29 (21,882) and aged 20-24 (20,938) were the groups which had the highest number of abortions.

The report also shows that over 10,000 mothers under 18 had an abortion in 2019.

Catalonia (14.7), the Balearic Islands (13.9) and Madrid (12) were the regions with the highest rate of abortions per 100,000 women.

The Spanish Law of Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy was approved in 2010 and allows mothers to have a “free” abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. Terminations after that week must be related to a “serous risk for the life or health of the mother or the foetus”.