Third of women having abortion have undergone past termination

Almost a third of women who had an abortion last year had previously terminated a pregnancy, new figures have revealed.

Almost a third of women who had an abortion last year had previously terminated a pregnancy, new figures have revealed.

Overall there were fewer abortions carried out in Scotland, down 9 in the last three years from 13,903 in 2008 to 12,471 in 2011. That equates to 34 terminations every day.

But while the number of women aged under 20 having an abortion has fallen by 22 per cent, there has been a rise in over-40s having the procedure.

However, the official figures showed 285 of last year’s abortions were carried out on girls aged under 16.

Women aged between 20 and 24 continue to have the most abortions but the figures also revealed a 5 per cent rise in the number of women over 40 having a termination in the past three years.

Health campaigners said one of the most shocking statistics to come out of the Scottish Government figures was that 29 per cent of women in Scotland who had an abortion in 2011 had at least one previous termination – up from 25 per cent in 2005.

That figure rose to 35.5 per cent in the NHS Tayside area, which has the highest number of terminations per head of population. The statistics also highlighted a clear link between poverty and abortions, with women living in poorer areas twice as likely to have the procedure than those in wealthier areas.

Marie Stopes International, which provides sexual and reproductive health services, called for “rapid action” to reduce the number of repeat abortions.

The organisation’s UK director, Tracey McNeill, said: “We recognise many women have multiple unwanted or unplanned pregnancies for reasons beyond their control. It goes without saying women should have the same access to non-judgmental, high-quality care whether it is their first abortion or their third.

“But we believe we need to radically change the way we provide post-abortion contraception to women if we’re going to reduce the number of abortions by any great amount.”

A Scottish Government spokesman described the overall fall in abortion numbers as “encouraging” but said ministers were disappointed at the number of repeat procedures.

The figures also showed almost two-thirds of terminations were carried out early in the pregnancy, with 65 per cent of abortions performed before nine weeks, up from 62.2 per cent in 2009.

The vast majority of terminations, 93 per cent, were carried out on the basis the women was not more than 24 weeks pregnant and that “the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk, greater than if the pregnancy were not terminated, of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant women”.

A total of 136 pregnancies were ended because of a substantial risk the child would suffer from a physical or mental condition causing the baby to be born seriously handicapped.

The figures were published the same day a study by online doctor and pharmacy DrFox.co.uk found seven out of ten single women admitted they regularly had unprotected sex. A study of women between the ages of 18 and 40 found those aged between 30-40 years were the most likely to have contracted a sexually transmitted infection.