§ 43. Miss WiddecombeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of women presenting for abortions in England and Wales in the latest year for which figures are available had already had previous abortions.
§ Mr. Freeman[holding answer 24 January 1989]: The notification form for abortions carried out under the Abortion Act 1967 requires information about previous abortions to the woman concerned to be recorded, distinguishing between spontaneous miscarriages and legal terminations.
810WLoch, (d) Rosyth, (e) Southampton, (f) Plymouth, (g) Portsmouth, (h) Cardiff and (i) Barry; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Freeman[holding answer 7 February 1989]: The exact information requested is not readily available.
Data are readily available for county/metropolitan county districts, and the table shows data for those districts containing the requested locations in England and Wales. Registration data are given for 1984, which is the latest available, and mortality data are shown for that year and for 1987.
Data for areas in Scotland are the responsibility of my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland.
The number of notifications for England and Wales in 1987 (the latest available year) where at least one previous legal termination to the woman had taken place is 33,294. This represents 19.1 per cent. of all notifications for that year. These previous legal terminations, which include previous legal abortions under the 1967 Act, also include those which occurred outside Great Britain and were therefore not carried out under the Act.
The number of notifications for England and Wales in 1987 where at least one previous spontaneous miscarriage to the woman had taken place is 12,249. This represents 7 per cent. of all notifications for that year.
Notifications having at least one previous spontaneous miscarriage and also at least one previous legal termination, and women having more than one abortion under the Act in 1987 will be counted more than once in the statistics.