Statistics

Who has abortions?
When are women having abortions?
On what grounds are women having abortions?

Who has abortions?

In 2010, the total number of abortions carried out for women resident in England and Wales was 189,574.

The abortion rate was highest at 33 per 1000 women aged 19 and 20.

Age of women	Number of abortions	Number of abortions as a percentage of all abortions
All ages	189,574	100%
Under 16	3,718	2%
Under 18	16,460	9%<
18 - 19	21,809	12%
20 - 24	55,481	29%
25 - 29	40,800	22%
30 - 34	27,978	15%
35 or over	27,046	14%
40 and over	8,326	4.26%

stats from www.dh.gov.uk

Age of women	Number of conceptions	Percentage of conceptions ending in abortion (2009)
All ages	896,300	21%
Under 16	7,200	60%
Under 20	97,900	42%

stats from www.statistics.gov.uk

When are women having abortions?

91% of abortions are carried out under 13 weeks of pregnancy. Less than 0.1% of abortions were carried out after 24 weeks.

Stage of pregnancy	Number of abortions carried out at this stage	Abortions carried out at this stage as a percentage of all abortions
3 - 9 weeks	145,163	77%
10 - 12 weeks	27,572	15
13 - 19 weeks	14,095	7%
20 weeks and over	2,744	1%

stats from www.dh.gov.uk

On what grounds are women having abortions?

A majority (98%) of all abortions were carried out under ground C – ‘the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated, of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman’

Legal grounds for abortion	Number of abortions carried out on these grounds	Number of abortions carried out on these grounds as a percentage of all abortions
A, F or G (or A with B, C, D) A - The continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk to the life of the pregnant woman greater than if the pregnancy were terminated	41	0.02%
B - the termination is necessary to prevent grave permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman (including B with C or D)	317	0.16%
C - the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated, of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman	185.291	97.74%
D - the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated, of injury to the physical or mental health of any existing child(ren) of the family of the pregnant woman (including D with C)	1,635	0.86%
E there is a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped (including E with A, B, C or D)	2,290	1.2%

stats from www.dh.gov.uk

96% of abortions for UK residents are paid for by the National Health Service and carried out in NHS hospitals or in clinics that have a contract to provide NHS funded abortions.

Approximately 4% of abortions are paid for privately either by women travelling from overseas, women who have chosen to go private in order to wait a shorter time, women who have chosen to go private in order to have a larger choice of procedures and anaesthetics, and women who have found it impossible to get an NHS-funded abortion