Abortion

HC Deb 21 April 1978 vol 948 cc390-7W

Mr. Townsend

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what were the numbers of abortions and illegitimate

		Age
		Under 16	16	17	18	19	Total Under 20
			Legal Abortions to Residents of England and Wales
1968 (from 27th April)	543	559	693	945	1,088	3,828
1969	…	1,174	1,445	1,816	2,255	2,543	9,233
1970	…	1,732	2,530	3,188	3,864	3,936	15,250
1971	…	2,296	3,465	4,426	5,193	5,092	20,472
1972	…	2,804	4,318	5,395	6,038	6,035	24,590
1973	…	3,090	5,082	5,775	6,374	6,249	26,570
1974	…	3,335	5,348	6,225	6,564	6,060	27,532
1975	…	3,570	5,411	6,394	6,389	5,928	27,692
1976	…	3,425	5,429	6,285	6,282	5,967	27,388
1977*	…	3,592	24,371	27,963

Illegitimate, Live and Still Births
		Resident and Non-resident	Under 20b Resident only
1967	…	1,241	2,677	4,817	6,340	6,940	22,015	N/a
1968	…	1,321	2,818	4,999	6,267	6,757	22,162	N/a
1969	…	1,489	2,877	4,956	6,151	6,498	21,971	N/a
1970	…	1,430	2,895	4,972	5,933	5,971	21,201	N/a
1971	…	1,546	2,978	5,387	6,015	5,978	21,904	N/a
1972	…	1,615	3,317	5,357	5,981	5,764	22,034	21,991
1973	…	1,703	3,266	5,019	5,680	5,353	21,021	20,978
1974	…	1,585	3,189	5,346	5,706	5,343	21,169	21,119
1975	…	1,536	3,024	5,196	5,731	5,251	20,738	20,694
1976	…	1,425	2,846	4,945	5,696	5,161	20,073	20,046
1977		Not yet available
* Provisional.
† Not available by single ages.
N/a Not available.

Mr. Townsend

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what was the birth rate and the abortion rate per 1,000 women aged between 15 to 44 years in England and Wales for the years 1976 and 1977.

Mr. Moyle

The information is as follows:

	Per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44
	1976	1977*
Abortions to women usually resident in England and Wales	10.6	10.5
Live births	60.9	58.7
Still births	0.6	0.6
* Provisional.

Mr. Townsend

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what were the total number of notified abortions per 100 live births for each of the 15 regional

births to resident females aged under 16 years, 16, 17, 18 and 19 years, respectively, for each of the years 1967 to 1977.

Mr. Moyle

The following information relates to events in England and Wales:

health authorities in England and Wales during 1977; and what was the overall total per 100 live births for England, Wales, and England and Wales during the same year.

Mr. Moyle

The latest available rates, which are by region of residence, are for 1976.

Regional Health Authority	Abortions per 100 live births
Northern	13.5
Yorkshire	13.8
Trent	14.3
East Anglian	13.4
North West Thames	30.1
North East Thames	24.9
South East Thames	21.1
South West Thames	20.9
Wessex	14.1
Oxford	14.9
South Western	15.7
West Midlands	17.6

Regional Health Authority	Abortions per 100 live births
Mersey	14.6
North Western	14.4
England	17.6
Wales	14.6
England and Wales	17.5

Mr. Townsend

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what were the number of abortions carried out in England and Wales in each year from 1968

			Abortions to
			All women in National Health Service only	Women not usually resident in England and Wales All premises	Women not usually resident in Great Britain All premises
		All abortions occurring in calendar year	Number	percentage of all	Number	percentage of all	Number	percentage of all
1968 (from 27th April)	23,641	14,560	61.6	1,309	5.5	Not available
1969	…	54,319	33,728	61.5	4,990	9.1	Not available
1970	…	86,565	47,678	55.1	10,603	12.2	10,294	11.9
1971	…	126,777	53,706	42.4	32,207	25.4	31,683	25.0
1972	…	159,884	57,086	35.7	51,319	32.1	50,484	31.6
1973	…	167,149	55,637	33.3	56,581	33.9	55,513	33.2
1974	…	162,940	56,320	34.6	53,495	32.8	52,469	32.2
1975	…	140,521	51,825	36.9	33,873	24.1	32,808	23.3
1976	…	127,904	50,046	39.1	26,901	21.0	25,976	20.3
1977*	…	132,999	52,198	39.2	30,762	23.1	29,910	22.5
* Notifications in 52-week period ended 28th December 1977.

Mr. Townsend

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many abortions were notified as being carried out in England and Wales in 1977 on women whose normal place of residence was respectively, England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Irish Republic, the Channel Isles, the Isle of Man, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Italy, West Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Canada, the United States of America, and other countries.

Mr. Moyle

The numbers of legal abortions performed in England and Wales and notified in the 52-week period ended 28th December 1977 are as follows:

Country of woman's usual residence
England and Wales	102,237
Scotland	852
Northern Ireland	1,255
Irish Republic	2,183
Channel Islands and Isle of Man	400
Belgium	364
Luxembourg	0
France	4,201

to 1977 inclusive; what was the number, and percentage, of these that were performed within the National Health Service for each year; what was the number, and percentage, that were performed on non-residents of England and Wales each year, and what was the number, and percentage, that was performed on nonresidents of Great Britain for each year.

Mr. Moyle

Legal abortions performed in England and Wales were as follows:

Spain	10,171
Italy	7,849
Germany (Federal Republic)	1,732
Netherlands	87
Denmark	5
Austria	118
Switzerland	284
Canada	10
United States of America	58
Other countries	1,193
Total	132,999

Miss Richardson

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what was the death rate per 100,000 legal abortion operations in England and Wales for each of the years 1967 to 1977 inclusive; and what was the rate for those operations performed within the first 12 weeks of gestation, between the 13th week and the 20th week, and after the 20th week, respectively, for each of those years.

Mr. Moyle

Information is not available in the full detail requested. The two tables below give the available information from 1969 to 1973 for women usually resident in England and Wales, and from 1972 to 1976 for all women.

Gestation weeks
			Under 13	13–16	17 and over	13 and over	Not stated	All gestations
			No.	Rate	No.	Rate	No.	Rate	No.	Rate	No.	Rate	No.	Rate
Deaths following legal abortions and rates per 10,000 legal abortions for women usually resident in England and Wales.
1969	…	…	6	1.9	7	5.5	4	9.6	11	6.5	—	—	17	3.4
1970	…	…	6	1.1	3	1.8	4	9.6	7	3.3	1	4.3	14	1.8
1971	…	…	6	0.9	3	1.7	2	5.3	5	2.3	—	—	11	1.2
1972	…	…	8	0.9	3	1.6	3	8.8	6	2.8	—	—	14	1.3
1973	…	…	3	0.3	1	0.6		—	1	0.5	—	—	4	0.4
Deaths following legal abortions and rates per 10,000 legal abortions in England and Wales for all women
1972	…	…	9	0.7	—	—	—	—	6	1.9	—	—	15	09
1973	…	…	5	0.4	—	—	—	—	1	0.3	—	—	6	0.4
1974	…	…	5	0.4	—	—	—	—	2	0.6	—	—	7	0.4
1975	…	…	—	—	—	—	—	—	3	1.1	—	—	3	0.2
1976	…	…	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	1	2.3	1	0.1

Deaths are those reported with notifications of legal abortions.

Miss Richardson

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services, how many abortions have taken place at 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28 weeks, respectively, in each year from 1967 to 1977 inclusive on women resident in England and Wales; and what percentage of total abortions each of these figures represents.

Mr. Moyle

Data by single weeks of gestation are not readily available and could not be obtained without a disproportionate use of time and resources. Available numbers, and percentages of all legal abortions to women resident in England and Wales, are given below.

	Gestation weeks
	20 to 23	24 to 28
	Number	Per cent	Number	Per cent
1968 (from 27th April)	572	2.6	127	0.6
1969	998	2.0	174	0.3
1970	796	1.0	157	0.2
1971	733	0.8	114	0.1
1972	709	0.7	137	0.1

LEGAL ABORTIONS IN ENGLAND AND WALES
	Under 9 weeks	9–12	13–19	20–23	24 and over	Not stated	All gestations
1974	Percentages
All premises	24.0	53.8	18.4	0.9	0.1	2.8	100
NHS	16.3	60.5	18.4	0.8	0.2	3.8	100
Non-NHS	28.1	50.2	18.4	1.0	0.1	2.2	100
1975
All premises	23.7	53.5	18.1	1.2	0.1	3.4	100
NHS	16.6	59.4	18.4	0.8	0.1	4.7	100
Non-NHS	27.8	50.2	17.9	1.4	0.1	2.6	100
1976
All premises	24.3	53.2	17.7	1.3	0.2	3.3	100
NHS	16.8	60.6	17.0	0.7	0.2	4.7	100
Non-NHS	29.1	48.4	18.2	1.7	0.2	2.4	100
The 1977 data are not yet available in this detail.

1973	833	0.8	142	0.1
1974	775	0.7	128	0.1
1975	847	0.8	124	0.1
1976	811	0.8	164	0.2
1977	Not yet available

Miss Richardson

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what percentage of abortions in England and Wales took place at under nine weeks, nine to 12 weeks, 13 to 19 weeks, 20 to 23 weeks, and 24 plus weeks, on all patients, National Health Service patients and non-National Health Service patients, respectively in the years 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1977.

Mr. Moyle

The full detail requested, distinguishing betwen operations on NHS and non-NHS premises, is available only for women usually resident in England and Wales. Abortions to non-residents have, however, all been included in the non-NHS category as only a few are performed in NHS hospitals. The few form less than 0.5 per cent of either the NHS or non-NHS totals.

Miss Richardson

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what were the number of deaths attributed to abortion in England and Wales for the year 1977, as classified under of the International Cause of Death codes 640 to 645.

Mr. Moyle

The latest information for England and Wales is a provisional figure of two deaths attributed to abortion (ICD 640–645) in the three quarters to 30th September 1977. In the year 1976, there were seven deaths from this cause.