British abortion rate hits an all-time high

Official figures reveal ‘brutal slaughter’ on an unprecedented scale, but the Government is still concealing details from the public
BY FREDDY GRAY
Doctors in England and Wales killed a record 194, 179 unborn children in 2004.
The latest figures from the Department of Health have revealed that the number of abortions rose by 2.1 per cent last year.
This means that for every 1,000 women in this country aged between 15 and 44, 18 will have “terminated their pregnancies” – the highest rate of all time.
There was also a six per cent rise in abortions among girls under 14.
Catholics and pro-life campaigners have already expressed their disgust at the figures, but it has also emerged that the Government is actually concealing vital statistics on abortions in the name of patient confidentiality.
“The brutal slaughter of innocent unborn children is a very sad and terrible indictment on this country. It is appalling that one of the few things we do really effectively is the killing of our own children,” Jim Dowson, Director of the UK LifeLeague, told the Catholic Herald.
Julia Millington, a spokes woman for the ProLife Alliance, said: “It is always unpleasant to scan chilling data on the suppression of pregnancy and heartbreaking to see the totals as they climb year after year, knowing that each number represents a tiny human life that has been ended.” Opponents of abortion blame Government policies on sex education and birth control. “Why do they keep faith in a system that clearly does not work?” asked Jim Dowson. “Government policies on sex education and contraception have resulted in a massive rise in teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, and – as you can see with these figures – abortion.” Anthony Ozimic, political secretary for the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child, said: “The Government should stop its ruthless attempt to rush women as quickly as possible through the abortion mill, in its frenzy to cut waiting times.
“It should end its policy of promoting secret abortions on teenagers without telling their parents, and it should stop the counterproductive sex education programmes that the proabortion lobby promotes widely.” The Rev Joanna Jepson, the Anglican who last year took legal action against two doctors for aborting a 28week-old child with a cleft palate, was “particularly distressed” about the sharp increase in abortions among girls under 14. “The Government policy of throwing contraceptives at very young children has been proved time and time again to be disastrous,” she said.
The ProLife Alliance is also alarmed by “suppression of data” by the Government. Last year official statistics on abortions were not released because of the Joanna Jepson case and the high media profile of the abortion issue.
Now the 2003 and 2004 abortion statistics have been published, but they do not include sensitive information about controversial abortions because of foetal abnormalities.
If there are fewer than 10 abortions for a particular abnormality in one year, then the Department of Health will not reveal the reason why those pregnancies were ended. In the 2005 figures, 24 late abortions occurred because of “foetal malfunctions”, the details of which remain unknown. “The term ‘foetal malfunction’could mean anything: joined together fingers or a club foot,” said Josephine Quintavalle, another spokeswoman for the ProLife Alliance.
“You do have a conflict between patient confidentially and the details of certain abortions that have been carried out for certain reasons. But when you have the possibility of criminal acts being committed through illegal abortions, then that tension is much greater.” The new figures, released last week, also point to an increase in abortions carried out by various private abortion providers, who now occupy 60 per cent of the market.
“It is hardly surprising that we saw them recently banding together against restrictive reform of the abortion act,” said Julia Millington. “Their livelihood depends on it.” Last week, the Family Planning Association claimed that more than £1 billion could be saved over the next 15 years if the NHS invested more in contraceptive services and provided quicker access to abortions.