A shocking report from Right To Life UK has revealed that almost a quarter of pregnancies in England and Wales ended in abortion last year.
Excluding stillbirths and miscarriages, 23.8% of pregnancies were aborted in 2018, up from 20.7% in 2012.
There were over 657,000 live births in England and Wales last year, but a total of 205,295 unborn babies died through abortion. On average, 23 unborn babies are killed every hour in England and Wales.
“It is a national tragedy that almost one in four pregnancies (excluding stillbirths and natural miscarriage) in England and Wales ended in abortion in 2018,” said Catherine Robinson, spokesperson for Right To Life UK.
The new numbers “represent one of the highest proportions of abortions to live birth” since abortion was legalized in England and Wales in 1967, she said.
The only year with higher abortion statistics was 2001, when 23.9% of pregnancies were aborted.
“Every one of these abortions represents a failure of our society to protect the lives of babies in the womb and a failure to offer full support to women with unplanned pregnancies,” Robinson added.
England and Wales have seen a gradual rise in abortion rates in the past years. According to the Department of Health and Social Care UK, 192,000 babies were aborted in 2017. That number jumped to 205,295 just one year later.
Experts believe the increase is due to women traveling to England and Wales to receive the procedure. More than 1,000 women from Northern Ireland traveled to either England or Wales to have an abortion. Only one in 20 pregnancies were aborted last year in Northern Ireland, where abortion is still illegal.
Pro-life politician Lord David Alton described the statistics as “deeply disturbing” and “a fruit of the Abortion Act 1967 and a culture deadened to and by the tragedy of abortion.”
Alton added: “This is the result of a worldview which sees women and their own children as enemies in a zero-sum game. But this is a great lie. We can, should and must love them both—mother and child.”
UK abortion campaigners are pushing to remove legal restrictions provided by the Abortion Act 1967. They will be bringing forward an amendment in UK law that would allow a mother to abort her baby up to 28 weeks old, as opposed to the current 24-week limit.
If they are successful, abortion campaigners have also promised to remove any gestational restriction for abortion so mothers can have an abortion right up to birth, for any reason.
In addition, they are pushing to remove legal restrictions on places where abortions can be performed. This would allow abortions to be carried out in medical clinics, universities and even schools.
Alton is urging the public in the UK to stand against these proposed amendments and “make it clear to their local politician that they do not want to make abortion laws even worse. They must vote against these proposals.”