Marking the 59th anniversary of the Abortion Act receiving Royal Assent, Right To Life UK has estimated that more than 11 million lives have been lost since the legalisation of abortion.
While the government does record and publish the number of abortions every year, figures for recent years have been subject to delay. The last full year for which abortion numbers have been published is 2023.
That year there were 278,740 abortions in England and Wales, a record high and a 10 per cent increase on 2022. Right To Life suggested that the significant rise was driven in part by the increased use of at home abortion services.
Introduced during the Covid years, the 'pills by post' scheme allowed women to end their pregnancies up to 10 weeks without ever meeting a medical professional in person. The scheme has been subject to criticism following a number of abuses, including a woman who illegally ended her pregnancy at around 32 to 34 weeks, and a man who was jailed after procuring abortion pills on false grounds and secretly giving them to his girlfriend, who subsequently miscarried and was left infertile.
Right to Life estimates that at the time of the 59th anniversary of the Abortion Act, a total of 11,256,470 unborn babies have been killed. The estimate would suggest an abortion every two minutes and is based on the assumption that the most recent official figures are unchanged. The real figure could in fact be higher.
Whatever the true figure, Right To Life said that the number of abortions in Britain is only likely to rise following the passage of an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that effectively legalises abortion up to the point of birth.
The amendment removes all legal sanctions from women who end their pregnancies themselves beyond the 24-week legal limit. Medical professionals are still only permitted to carry out abortions up to the 24-week limit, unless there are exceptional circumstances. Critics note that the amendment not only allows abortion up to birth, but also incentivises the “back-street abortions” that pro-abortion activists have long claimed to dread.
Catherine Robinson, a spokesperson for Right To Life, said, “Our abortion laws continue to fail both women and unborn babies. Since the Abortion Act received Royal Assent in 1967, a devastating 11,256,470 lives have been lost to abortion, each one a precious, unique and irreplaceable human being who was denied the right to life.
“Each of these abortions represents a collective failure of our society to protect the lives of babies in the womb and provide full support to women with unplanned pregnancies.
"As we pause to reflect on this tragedy, this day also serves as a call to action for people around the country to renew their efforts to do everything they can to help ensure more lives are saved from abortion in the future."
