Nearly 25 percent of all babies were aborted in 2018, official statistics have revealed.
The Office of National Statistics released data for 2018 in England and Wales. It showed that, of a total of 862,371 pregnancies (excluding stillbirths and natural miscarriages), there were 657,076 live births and 205,295 abortions.
This represents 23.8 percent of all pregnancies, a ratio of close to one in four. This is up from 20.7 percent in 2012 (excluding stillbirths and natural miscarriages).
According to the records, the year 2018 had the highest proportion of abortions to live births since 1969 (the first year for which complete records are available), except for 2001, which had 23.9 percent of all pregnancies ending in abortion.
This compares to Northern Ireland where just 4.7 percent of pregnancies ended in abortion, including women who travelled to England and Wales for a termination. For women living in Northern Ireland there were 22,833 live births and only 1065 abortions.
This figure represents less than 1 in 20 pregnancies (excluding stillbirths and natural miscarriages) ending in abortion for women resident in Northern Ireland.
Catherine Robinson, a spokesman for pro-life advocacy organisation Right To Life, commented, ‘It is a national tragedy that almost 1 in 4 pregnancies (excluding still-births and natural miscarriages) in England and Wales is ended in abortion in 2018.
‘This represents one of the highest proportions of abortions to live births since abortion was introduced in 1967.
‘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’.
She also highlighted the ‘dramatic difference’ surrounding abortion laws in parts of the UK. However, the Westminster Parliament recently voted to allow abortions up to 28 weeks in Northern Ireland, unless the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive is back in place before 21 October.
Catherine Robinson added, ‘If the new abortion regime that Westminster is imposing on NI comes into force on the 21st October, there will likely be a rapid increase in the number of pregnancies ending in abortion in Northern Ireland.
‘This will likely be made worse by the fact the law being introduced is so extreme, permitting abortion up to 28 weeks with no legal safeguards’.
According to Ms Robinson, not only will these numbers get worse when legal restrictions are removed, but also questions must be asked about why an increasing proportion of pregnant women are ending their pregnancies via abortion.
