Last updated on July 20th, 2023 at 02:57 am
Abortion statistics released by the Department of Health and Social Care at end-June show that 123,219 abortions took place in England and wales in the six months between 1 January and 30 June 2022.
This is 17,731 higher than the figure for the first six months of 2021, which was 105,488. 2021 saw the highest number of abortions ever recorded in England and Wales over a full year, at 214,256.
The reporting on this significant rise in abortions has come as abortion campaigners, led by abortion provider BPAS, cynically use the tragic case of the death of Baby Lily at between 32 and 34 weeks gestation to call for the full decriminalization of abortion, which would permit abortion for any reason up to birth in England and Wales.
Right To Life UK is calling for the reinstatement of in-person appointments before all abortions take place to ensure that the gestation of babies can accurately be assessed, along with a full inquiry into the abortion provider, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service for sending out abortion pills to a woman whose baby, Lily, was at least 32 weeks gestation, which is 22 weeks beyond the legal limit for at-home abortions.
The organization is also calling for the Government to firmly reject changing legislation to make abortion legal right up to birth. The figures show that:
- In England and Wales, there were 123,219 abortions from January to June 2022, an increase of 17,731 abortions from the first half of 2021 when there were 105,488 abortions between January and June.
- This represents a 17% increase compared to the first half of 2021.
- 2021 saw the highest number of abortions ever recorded in England and Wales over a full year, at 214,256.
- The statistics for 2022 also show that there were 50,289 repeat abortions for residents of England and Wales (where a woman previously had one or more abortions).
- This represents 41% of abortions in England and Wales that took place in the first half of 2022.
- 13,970 women who reside in England and Wales had previously had 2 or more abortions.
- This represents 11% of abortions in England and Wales that took place in the first half of 2022.
- 53 women who reside in England and Wales had previously had eight or more previous abortions.
- There were 1,428 disability-selective (ground E) abortions for residents of England and Wales in the first half of 2022
- 120 of these were late-term abortions for babies with disabilities at 24 weeks and over.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson said:
“It is a national tragedy that 123,219 lives were lost to abortion between January and June 2022. This is 17,731 higher than the figure for the first six months of 2021, which was 105,488. 2021 saw the highest number of abortions ever recorded in England and Wales for residents of England and Wales over a full year, at 214,256.
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. The reporting on this significant rise in abortions has come as abortion campaigners, led by abortion provider BPAS, cynically use the tragic case of the death of Baby Lily at between 32 and 34 weeks gestation to call for the full decriminalization of abortion, which would permit abortion for any reason up to birth.”
Robinson added that, “It seems this tragic number of lives being lost to abortion is not enough for abortion campaigners and they are set on doing everything they can to introduce extreme abortion legislation that would likely see even more lives lost to abortion.”
“We are calling for the reinstatement of in-person appointments before abortions take place to ensure that the gestation of babies can accurately be assessed. At 32-34 weeks or around 8 months gestation, Baby Lily was a fully formed human child. If her mother had been given an in-person appointment by BPAS, she would still be alive. We are also calling for a full inquiry into the abortion provider, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, for sending out abortion pills to a woman whose baby, Lily, was 22 weeks beyond the legal limit for at-home abortions.
The Government must firmly reject changing legislation to make abortion legal right up to birth, as is proposed by abortion campaigners, led by BPAS, who are using this tragic case to call for the removal of more abortion safeguards and the introduction of abortion up to birth.”
This proposal is completely out of line with where women stand on the issue. Polling from Savanta ComRes on whether time limits for abortion should be increased showed that only 1% of women in Great Britain wanted the time limit to be extended to more than 24 weeks and 1% wanted it to be increased right through to birth, in contrast to 70% of women who favored a reduction in time limits.”
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