Abortions in England and Wales have reached their highest level on record, with experts pointing to widespread misinformation, worsening access to contraception, and the cost-of-living crisis as key factors behind the rise.
There were almost 278,000 abortions in 2023, according to the latest data from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
This is up 11% from the previous year, 50% in the last ten years, and – since the Abortion Act made terminating a pregnancy legal in 1967 – marks a twelvefold increase in the number of abortions.
“It’s a tale of two halves,” said Dr Zara Haider, president of the College of Sexual and Reproductive Health (CoSRH).
“Access is one of the reasons. It is easy for a woman to access a termination if she so chooses. Women in this country are fortunate in that respect.
“The other side of the story is to ask why women are having these unintended pregnancies that are requiring them to then seek termination.”
One reason is misinformation.
Within seconds of searching for ‘contraception’ on TikTok, videos of women sharing their personal horror stories flood the feed.
Manosphere-adjacent commentary competes for screen-time, as men warn that women on the pill will lose touch with their ‘divine femininity’ and break up with their boyfriends.
Finding a contraception-positive post is a challenge.
Dr Haider said: “If you’ve got a query, where do you go? Online. You go online which is totally unregulated. You could be reading anything from anywhere.
“And when women read it, they talk to their friends, they talk to their family, and it is like a snowball effect.
“It puts so many women off using contraception which is such a shame because contraception, not only for contraceptive purposes, is life-changing.”
Women in their thirties experienced the biggest relative increase in the number of abortions they were having over the last ten years, despite women in their twenties having the highest number overall.
For those aged between 30 and 34, there was an 86% increase while for those aged 35 and above, it was 89%.
Women aged between 20 and 24, who topped the rankings at more than 70,000 abortions in 2023, experienced a 30% increase in ten years.
Under 18s were the only age group to experience a decrease.
Louise McCudden, head of external relations and advocacy for MSI Reproductive Choices, a UK-based charity, also pointed towards misinformation as the driving force behind this trend for over-thirties.
She said: “One of the things we hear is women saying, ‘I didn’t think I could get pregnant anymore’.
“There is a lot of talk in the media and other places in pop culture about more women not having children or having children too late, so women think ‘well it is too late now’.
“Actually, they are still able to become pregnant.”
A fear of, lack of thought for, and failure to access contraception is a recurring theme.
On the postnatal ward, many women are not thinking about preventing future pregnancies, unaware of how quickly their fertility can return – some women find they are pregnant again just three weeks after giving birth.
In 2023, a third of women having an abortion had given birth at least twice before.
“You’ve got a woman there who is exhausted,” said Dr Haider. “She’s just had a baby. She’s got a million things going on in her mind. Probably one of the last things she’s thinking about is contraception.
“It requires lifelong learning, and what concerns us is access. Is it that women are finding it hard to get hold of their contraceptive methods? Is it that they don’t know where to go? Is it that services are shutting down?”
In 2015, former Chancellor George Osborne slashed public health budgets – the main source of contraception funding – by £200m.
The government then announced a year-on-year budget cut of nearly 4% from 2016 to 2021 with the cuts totalling at least £600m.
Many cash-strapped local authorities, especially those in the most deprived areas of the country, had to make the difficult choice to reduce sexual health services, leaving remaining facilities to buckle under demand, preventing women from accessing the contraception they need.
In London, where the number of abortions is the highest in the country, at nearly 52,000 in 2023, the figures are marked by deprivation.
Croydon, Newham, and Lambeth – boroughs frequently considered to be the poorest or most unequal in the city – saw the highest number of abortions, while the City of London, Richmond, and Kingston – some of the wealthiest – saw the lowest.
McCudden said: “The more deprivation you are experiencing, and that can be in terms of the quality of education you have access to, time and if you’re working split shifts, or if you’re trying to care for children already, the less ability you have to advocate for yourself and research things.”
And as the first full year of abortion care during the cost-of-living crisis, these figures reflect the growing concerns women have about the affordability of children.
According to MoneySuperMarket analysis, raising a child from birth to 18 years can cost between £139,600 and £501,000.
More than seven in ten parents said they feel stressed about the financial pressures of raising their children, with 18% deciding to have fewer children than they originally wanted.
In YouGov polling from 2024, almost three in ten 18–40-year-olds who do not want children say it is because it is too expensive.
“We hear people’s stories and we have people talking to us about financial pressures. More and more that is playing a part in the decision,” said McCudden.
“Even in more comfortable economic times, if people are really struggling to put food on the table to support any existing children, then the combination of that with not being able to get the right contraception, leads to a rising number of abortions.”
Of all the terminations that took place in 2023, 87% were medical procedures with nearly three-quarters of women choosing to take their abortion pills at home.
Before ten weeks of pregnancy, it is legal for women to access telemedicine, the legislation for which was introduced during the Covid pandemic and made permanent in 2022.
For many women, including those living with abusive partners who might be prevented from safely visiting a clinic, these pills-by-post provide an important, accessible treatment.
McCudden said: “Women might want the privacy and dignity of having the abortion at home as it might give them more control over it.
“Some people may be uncomfortable with the word convenience, but we don’t want things to be inconvenient. We don’t want to make it more difficult than it needs to be.”
One in three women will have an abortion in their lifetime.
Nine in ten people in the UK are pro-choice – across different generations and the political spectrum – and earlier this year, legislation was introduced to decriminalise abortion meaning that women will no longer fear potential prosecution for ending a pregnancy.
“A lot of people say it’s a difficult decision and the hardest day of a woman’s life,’ added McCudden.
“And for some it will be. But for many, the strongest thing they feel is that they are glad they made the right decision.”
Featured image: Unsplash
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