Legal change, poverty, and disability drive record-breaking UK abortion rate

The number of abortions taking place in the UK reached a record high in 2023, and ‘deeply troubling’ figures also suggest increases in disability- and sex-selective abortions.

There were 278,740 abortions in England and Wales in 2023, according to statistics just released by the Department of Health and Social Care on 15 January 2026: an increase of 26,618 or 10.56 per cent from 2022.

This takes the estimated total number of abortions across the United Kingdom for 2023 to 299,614, when added to the 18,242 abortions that took place in Scotland and 2,632 in Northern Ireland: record numbers for all the nations of the UK.

In comparison, there were 656,969 live births registered in the UK in 2023. This means that there were approximately 46 per cent as many abortions as there were babies born.

This rise in the number of abortions coincides with the third full year that at-home abortion services have been available in England and Wales via the pills by post scheme.

In Scotland, women in the most deprived areas were twice as likely to have an abortion as women in the least deprived areas in 2023.

This figure is consistent with the figures from 2022 in England, when the most deprived women had a rate of 28.9 abortions per 1,000 women, compared with 14.7 abortions per 1,000 of the least deprived women – the data showing the correlation between abortion and poverty in 2023 is not yet available for England or Wales.

A survey carried out in 2024 by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), Britain’s largest abortion provider, found that 57 per cent of women reported that financial factors had either “mainly or partly” influenced their decision to abort.

Pope Leo XIV said in his address to diplomats on 9 January that it is “deplorable” for countries to use public resources “to suppress life, rather than being invested to support mothers and families.”

He said “The primary objective must remain the protection of every unborn child and the effective and concrete support of every woman so that she is able to welcome life.”

The figures show that there were 3,205 abortions carried out on grounds of foetal disability in England and Wales in 2023, an increase of 81 disability-selective abortions from 2022, when there were 3,124.

300 late-term abortions of babies with disabilities were carried out at 24 weeks or over for residents of England and Wales, an increase of 44 from 2022: a 17.19 per cent increase in late-term abortions for babies with disabilities.

Abortion is legal up to birth in the UK if there is a “substantial risk” of the baby having “severe physical or mental abnormalities”, including Down’s syndrome.

735 babies with Down’s syndrome were aborted in 2023, and there were 10 late-term abortions for babies with Down’s syndrome at 24 weeks and over for residents of England and Wales.

According to NHS England, 87 per cent of pregnancies prenatally diagnosed with Down’s syndrome were aborted in 2021. This data is not available for 2023.

Eilís Mulroy, Pro Life Campaign spokesperson, said, “It’s deeply troubling to see the number of abortions on the grounds of disability, with many of these abortions carried out at 20 weeks gestation or later. It suggests that women are being advised that abortion is a normal response to news that an unborn child may have Down Syndrome or another disability.

“A genuinely compassionate society should be offering practical help and meaningful support to families in this situation, not suggesting ending a life as the default response to disability.

“We have been calling on the government to take steps to ensure that no family feels abortion is the only option following a diagnosis of disability and we renew that call today. 

“Women and families facing challenging diagnoses must receive balanced information and support so that the lives of unborn children with disability are respected and protected. Every child, regardless of ability, deserves the chance to live, and every mother deserves support – not a system that encourages ending lives.”

There were also 40 abortions where the baby had a cleft lip or cleft palate, an increase of 14.29 per cent from 2020, of which 5 were late-term abortions.

A spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said, “Abortion is a sensitive and difficult subject that affects many people. But after today’s figures, MPs can no longer ignore what is happening or the steady drift in recent years into extreme laws. It’s time we woke up as a nation and agreed together that it’s time for change.

“The Government must urgently bring forward new protections for unborn children and increased support for women with unplanned pregnancies. Polling shows these changes are backed by the public, and this would ensure we are working together as a society to reduce the tragic number of lives that are lost to abortion each year.” 

A survey carried out by opinion polling consultancy Savanta ComRes shows that 70 per cent of women in the UK support reducing the current 24-week gestational time limit, which is out of line with the majority of European Union countries, where the most common time limit is 12 weeks. A significant number of babies born prematurely at 22 weeks can survive outside the womb.

Catherine Robinson also said, “The situation is likely to get worse if the highly controversial abortion up to birth amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, which the House of Lords is due to consider at committee stage before the end of the month, becomes law.”

This amendment does not change the legal abortion limit but decriminalises “a woman acting in relation to her own pregnancy” at any stage in pregnancy, so that women who end their pregnancy at home after the limit would not face charges.

Evidence has also recently emerged suggesting that approximately 400 sex-selective abortions of baby girls have happened between 2017 and 2021.

BPAS has claimed that sex-selective abortion is not illegal, despite a Government statement that their position is “unequivocal” that sex-selective abortion is illegal in England and Wales.

It is not possible for mothers to find out the sex of their baby on the NHS until 18 weeks, but it is now possible to identify foetal sex through testing in private clinics after just 7 weeks of pregnancy.

Catherine Robinson said, “It’s irresponsible for BPAS to publish advice suggesting that sex-selective abortion is not illegal, because it risks normalising sex-selective abortion and is likely encouraging abortions sought purely because of a baby’s sex.

“It is also likely making it much harder for women to push back when a husband, boyfriend, or other family member is pressuring them into an abortion simply because they are expecting a girl.

“Women trying to resist that pressure by pointing out that sex-selective abortion is unlawful may be met with the response from coercive third parties that the UK’s largest abortion provider itself says that it is not illegal.

“The Government must act without delay to cut all funding it provides to BPAS, urgently update legislation to introduce an explicit ban on sex-selective abortion, and must not pursue further changes to legislation, such as those proposed in Scotland, that would likely make this problem much worse.”

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