Row As Abortions Increase
June 23rd 2008
Anti-abortion campaigners may be increasing the number of procedures undertaken - by highlighting their existence, it was claimed yesterday.
Figures published last week showed increasing rates of abortions.
The biggest increase was a four per cent rise in Scotland - compared with a 2.2 per cent rise in England and Wales.
The figures showed an especially large jump in abortions involving under-aged mothers.
Some 165 girls under the age of 14 had abortions in 2007 compared with 135 in 2006.
And amongst under-16 year-olds there was a ten per cent increase, representing about 400 extra procedures.
Some 13,704 abortions were performed in Scotland - a much lower rate than the total of nearly 198,499 in England and Wales.
Yesterday Ann Furedi, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service - which provides abortion services, said of Scotland: "The intention may have been to dissuade women from abortions, but in fact, because these type of attacks attracted so much publicity, it fixes the idea in women’s minds that abortion is an option, and oddly enough, that may well reduce the stigma about it."
She told the Sunday Telegraph: "Even if the message is railing about sin, and an amoral society, the other point getting through is that lots of women are doing this, and that it is more acceptable."
The new figures come ahead of continued parliamentary debates on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.
Having seen off attempts to restrict abortion, the government is under pressure to put forward amendments to make it easier to obtain.
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