Pro-life charity ‘deeply saddened’ by new abortion figures

A spokeswoman for the pro-life charity LIFE says she is “deeply saddened…but not necessarily surprised” by a report from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Guttmacher Insitute showing one in four pregnancies worldwide lead to abortion.

The report, which looked at global figures for abortion from data collected by government agencies and international organisations, showed the number of terminations had increased globally to 56 million a year.

Although the abortion rate has declined markedly in developed nations since 1990, it has remained roughly the same in developing countries, the report stated this week. Experts are calling for new approaches to contraceptive services for poorer women.

“If we accept abortion as a solution to poverty then we are not only failing the child whose life will be ended but the mother who must live with that decision afterwards,” Anne Scanlan from LIFE said. “It is clear that more education is needed on the humanity of the unborn child and the availability of support services for pregnant women,” she added.

The report stated that abortion rates are not significantly different in countries where abortion is highly restricted, but Miss Scanlan refuted this, saying: “In countries with restrictive abortion laws, data collection on 'illegal' abortion is obviously extremely difficult to obtain. Therefore all of the abortion rates for countries where abortion is illegal were estimates based on modelling and other factors, such as contraceptive failure rates, rather than facts or hard data…What we do know from our own experience in the UK is that the abortion rate has drastically increased since the passing of the 1967 Abortion Act.”

Dr Bela Ganatra, from the WHO, said: "The high rates of abortion seen in our study provide further evidence of the need to improve and expand access to effective contraceptive services. Investing in modern contraceptive methods would be far less costly to women and to society than having unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions." 

Other interesting findings included: 73 per cent of all abortions worldwide were obtained by married women and at least 22,000 women die from abortion-related complications every year.

The abortion figures did not include women taking the morning after pill, which is considered a method of emergency contraception.