§ Mr. AmosTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the total number of women who have had more than one abortion in the United Kingdom; and if he will list the figures (i) for each of the last five years, (ii) under each ground and (iii) by number of abortions; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Dorrell[holding answer 25 June 1991]: The tables provide the data requested for Great Britain. There are no available data for Northern Ireland.
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The total number of women who have had more than one legal termination in Great Britain, for: (1) each of the last five years; (2) each ground. Year Total number of women who have had more than one termination in Great Britain Statutory grounds under which the current termination was performed, by number of women 1 (with any other) 2 (alone) 3 (with or without 2) 4 (alone) 4 (with any other except 1, excluding 4 alone) 5 or 6 1986 32,539 87 28,448 3,671 194 139 — 1987 34,591 76 29,976 4,212 194 132 1 1988 37,939 99 33,187 4,360 196 97 — 1989 40,650 70 35,469 4,804 210 97 — 1990 43,048 94 38,085 4,563 234 70 2 1. Risk to life of woman.
2. Risk of injury to physical or mental health of woman.
3. Risk of injury to physical or mental health of existing child(ren).
4. Substantial risk of child being born seriously handicapped.
5. In emergency, to save life of woman.
6. In emergency, to prevent grave permanent injury to physical or mental health of woman.
The full definition of statutory grounds appears in the introduction to the OPCS annual publication 'Abortion statistics'.
The total number of women who have had more than one legal termination in Great Britain, for: (1) each of the last five years: and (2) by the number of previous terminations. Year Total number of women who have had more than one termination in Great Britain Number of women who have had a termination in the current year, by the number of previous terminations 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Not known 1986 32,539 27,927 3,732 655 161 27 22 8 4 3 — 1987 34,591 29,542 4,092 740 159 37 14 3 2 2 — 1988 37,939 32,424 4,463 794 184 48 14 8 2 2 — 1989 40,650 34,444 4,935 975 206 53 24 9 1 3 — 1990 43,048 36,243 5,446 1,001 228 75 34 9 3 8 1