Almost three in 10 conceptions ended in legal abortions in the two nations in 2022, up from about two in 10 a decade earlier, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The percentage of conceptions leading to legal abortion – which has been increasing for all age groups since 2015 – was 29.7% in 2022, up from 26.5% a year earlier and 20.8% in 2012. There were 247,703 conceptions leading to a legal abortion in 2022, a 13.1% rise on the 218,923 recorded in 2021.
Separate government figures relating to 2022 that were published last year showed the number of abortions for women living in England and Wales had risen by almost a fifth in a year. There were 251,377 abortions for women resident in the two nations in 2022, according to figures from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), which was the highest since the Abortion Act was introduced almost 60 years ago and a rise of 17% on the 2021 figure.
Katherine O’Brien, from the British Pregnancy Advisory Services (Bpas), said women were struggling to access contraception as well as facing increasing financial pressures because of the cost of living crisis.
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