Nearly 3 in 10 pregnancies in England and Wales result in abortion, official figures reveal

Nearly three in ten conceptions in 2022 lead to legal abortions, up from around two in ten a decade earlier, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed.

The figure was 29.7 percent in 2022, up from 26.5 per cent the year before.

In 2012, the figure was 20.8 per cent in.

The rate has steadily surging among all age groups since 2015, the ONS said.

There were nearly 250,000 pregnancies resulting in legal abortions in 2022. This marked a 13.1 per cent rise on 2021, when there were nearly 220,000.

Pregnancies that resulted in miscarriages or an illegal abortions were not included in the figures.

Read more: Abortion and assisted dying votes show MPs ‘don’t represent us,’ argues LBC caller

Read more: MPs vote to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales in historic Commons vote

The rise could be down to extended waiting times for certain forms of contraception and the cost of living, according to the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas).

In June MPs voted to add an amendment that would decriminalise abortion.

It means no woman will be prosecuted for ending their own pregnancy at any stage.

It marks a significant overhaul of the law in England in Wales, which stipulates that abortion is allowed up to the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.

It is sometimes allowed beyond that in certain circumstances.

However, abortion is still deemed a criminal offence under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929. It also has to be approved by two doctors.

Katherine O’Brien, from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas), argued women have faced “significant barriers” accessing contraception.

She blamed this on long waiting times and difficulties securing appointments.

“At Bpas, we regularly hear from women who are seeking an abortion after falling pregnant while waiting for repeat pill prescriptions or coil insertions.

“Emergency contraception, while not a silver bullet to unplanned pregnancy rates, remains an underutilised resource in this country, with the majority of women not accessing this vital back-up method after an episode of unprotected sex.

“No woman should have to end a pregnancy she would otherwise have continued purely for financial reasons and no woman should become pregnant because our healthcare system is failing to provide women with the contraception they want, when they need it,” she told The Times.

In recent years, record numbers of women are being investigated for suspected illegal abortions in England and Wales. This includes women who have had stillbirths or miscarriages, under what authorities deem to be ‘suspicious’ circumstances.

Women are facing years-long investigations, being arrested straight from the hospital ward, having their homes searched, and having their children taken away.

In 2021, a 15-year-old girl was investigated by police after a stillbirth at 28 weeks.

She was accused of an illegal abortion and was put through a year-long investigation; her laptop and phone were confiscated for analysis over her GCSEs. This concluded with the coroner finding that her pregnancy had ended due to natural causes.

The same year, another woman was arrested and kept in a police cell for 36 hours after a stillbirth at 24 weeks, due to suspicions she had used abortion pills past the legal limit.

Writing for LBC Opinion, Sonia Adesara, an NHS doctor and campaigner, argued: "Women who are seeking an abortion need to be supported and shown compassion, not treated like criminals. If passed, this vote could signal a monumental shift in reproductive care for women.

"The majority of people in this country are pro-choice, and I firmly believe that most people do not want to see women prosecuted for trying to end a pregnancy. Now, let's get the law in step with public opinion."