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"A Catastrophic Failure of Women and Babies": Abortion rate in England and Wales hits an all-time high

On Monday (8th June) in the House of Commons, the Northern Ireland abortion regulations were passed by a Committee. The regulations will now move forward to the House of Lords and will need to be passed there in a committee.

Abortion statistics released by the Department for Health this morning (Thursday 11th June) show the highest number of abortions ever recorded for English and Welsh residents.

Precious Life has described the abortion figures for 2019 as a “catastrophic failure of women and babies.” The number of abortions is at its highest since the Abortion Act came into force in April 1968.

The devastating figures show that:

In England and Wales, there were 209,519 abortions in 2019, an increase of 3.4% from 2018 1,014 women from Northern Ireland travelled to the United Kingdom to undergo and abortion. There was an increase in repeat abortions from 78,988 in 2018 to 83,624 in 2019. 40% of women undergoing abortions had one or more previous abortions 126 selective abortions were performed, where a twin, triplet or more were aborted in the womb There were 3,183 babies aborted for having a disability in 2019. This represents a 53% increase compared to 2009 656 babies with Down’s syndrome were aborted in 2019 17 babies were aborted for having a cleft lip or palette 98 % of unborn children were killed under Ground C, “That the pregnancy has NOT exceeded its 24th week and that 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”. 99.9% of these were reported as being performed because of an unspecified risk to the woman’s mental health.

In response to the figures, Founder and Director of Precious Life, Bernadette Smyth said:

“The latest abortion figures represent a catastrophic failure of women and their children. It is a tragedy hard to comprehend that 209,519 precious, unique and unrepeatable human beings were killed in England and Wales alone in the last year. Every single baby killed represents a tragic failure of our society to protect the lives of children in the womb and a failure of our society to offer compassionate, genuine and practical support to women facing unintended pregnancies.

Need for Change

“In light of today’s statistics, we are calling on the UK Government and the Stormont Executive to urgently increase support for women with unintended pregnancies, and to take action to save lives. The same UK Government so seemingly concerned with ‘saving lives’ during the coronavirus lockdown has sanctioned, incentivised and funded the deliberate killing of 209,519 children in the womb in 2019. The UK Government must be called out on its breath-taking hypocrisy when it comes to protecting the lives of children in the womb.

“With Stormont back up and running, it is now imperative that the Department of Health invest massive funding in crisis pregnancy resource centres to make sure that women are given real help and all of their options.

"Currently, there is absolutely no government funding for pregnancy resource centres in Northern Ireland despite these figures reaffirming that there is a desperate need for such funding. Surely in the year 2020, we can offer compassionate, humane and progressive options for women as opposed to offering them the death of their baby. It is time to work together as a society to reduce the tragic numbers of babies killed in abortions every year, and to put an end to the greatest human rights injustice of today.”

To read today's news update in full, visit: [[link removed]]

Yours in Life,

The Precious Life Communications Team

Precious Life PO Box 425, Belfast, BT1 4YF

t: 028 9027 8484 e: [email protected]

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