§ Miss Richardsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the evidence on trends in illegal abortions occurring since the passing of the Abortion Act 1967, including figures on deaths from illegal abortion, discharges from hospital following septic abortion, emergency bed service admissions in connection with abortion, known offences of procuring illegal abortion, persons found guilty of illegal abortion offences; and whether these figures indicate a rise or a fall in illegal abortion occurrences compared with before 1967.
829W
§ Dr. VaughanThe only source of information about occurrences of illegal abortions are the estimates of cases treated in hospital with that as the main diagnosis. Other available figures, which
ENGLAND AND WALES Year Deaths in cases following main diagnosis of illegal abortion or recorded as induced but not otherwise specified Deaths in cases where abortion not specified as induced or spontaneous Cases treated in hospital with main diagnosis of illegal abortion (estimates only)† Discharges from hospital following diagnosis of septic abortion (estimates only)† 1966 30 17* 170 2,560 1967 17 11 270 2,530 1968 22 10 520 3,100 1969 15 2 670 2,080 1970 11 4 750 2,020 1971 6 4 770 1,600 1972 7 7 320 97 1973 4 2 520 93 1974 2 1 370 54 1975 1 1 180 81 1976 1 3 Not available Not available 1977 1 0 Not available Not available 1978 (provisional) 0 0 Not available Not available Information regarding offences of procuring illegal abortion is published annually in " Criminal Statistics, England and Wales". In the volume for 1977—Cmnd. 7289—the relevant tables are 2.8 and 10(a). The indicators mentioned above all show a substantial decline in recent years. * Includes deaths from spontaneous abortion. † These figures derive from the hospital in-patient inquiry which is only a sample inquiry. The number of cases diagnosed as illegal abortions is small and the sampling error correspondingly large. In addition, there is a large number of hospital in-patient cases each year where the main diagnosis is abortion but it is not specified whether the abortion was induced or spontaneous.