British Government Spends $1 Million Weekly on Repeat Abortions

LifeNews May 14, 2012:

New figures from the United Kingdom show the British government spends one million pounds every week in taxpayer funding for abortions for women who have having at least their second or more abortion.
The National Health Service is spending around £1million a week and critics are saying this proves women are using abortion as a method of birth control. As the London Daily Mail newspaper reports, some women are getting taxpayer funding for as many as seven, eight or nine abortions in their lifetime.

In one London borough, half of all abortions are requested by women who have already aborted at least one foetus.
In 2010, the latest year for which figures are available, some 189,000 abortions took place. Of these, more than 64,000 terminations were on women who had already aborted a foetus in the past. More than 50,000 of them were single or living with a partner; while around 9,500 were married – with the marital status unknown for the rest.
Across all age groups, a total of 85 women had an abortion despite having had seven previous terminations.
The statistics showed that repeat abortions were most prevalent in London. Of the 23 primary care trust areas with the highest proportion of repeat abortions, 21 were in London. Croydon had the highest ratio with half of all terminations being carried out on women who had previously had at least one abortion.
Almost 100 of the women who came back for at least their second termination were under the age of 20. Of the 950 repeat abortions, 787 were for unmarried women, of whom 545 were under the age of 30.

Paul Tully, the General Secretary for SPUC, the British pro-life group, lamented the new numbers.
“The figures indicate wide differences around the country for repeat abortions, but regional and local variations also suggest that in many areas abortion is being used unlawfully to try to cut the birth-rate among minority and low-income groups more likely to claim benefits,” he said.
“Professor Dame Sally Davies, the Chief Medical Officer, issued a directive in February instructing abortion providers and NHS medical directors to comply fully with the medical conditions required for abortions in the Abortion Act 1967,” Tully continued. “We suspect that Professor Davies’ letter is being totally ignored by both NHS trusts and private abortion clinics. Our belief is that the Sexual Health Team at the Department of Health is continuing to tell doctors and hospitals to provide abortion on demand, and that they are telling abortion providers that there is no political appetite to take action against them for breaking the law.”
“There is no evidence of any change in policy by the major private abortion clinics which have lucrative contracts to do NHS abortions. They are doing no fewer illegal abortions than hitherto. The legal grounds for abortion are not fulfilled in 99% of cases,” he said.