§ Lord Alton of Liverpoolasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many abortions were performed in Great Britain between 1967 and 1997; and how many human embryos have been destroyed in British laboratories since the passage of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990.
§ Baroness Jay of PaddingtonBetween 27 April 1968, when the Abortion Act 1967 came into operation, and 31 March 1997, the latest quarter for which figures are available, the total number of abortions performed in Great Britain was 4,673,674. The figures requested for human embryos are not routinely collected. However, on the basis of information provided by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority last year, the number of embryos that were neither frozen nor used for treatment or other purposes between 1 August 1991 and 31 December 1994 was 90,491.