One third of women who terminate a pregnancy have had earlier abortion

Babies: New abortion statistics have been released.

Almost a third of women who had an abortion in 2011 had previously terminated a pregnancy, figures have revealed.

Official statistics showed there were 12,471 abortions carried out in 2011.

The number of terminations is down from 13,903 in 2008 and has now fallen for the last three years.

Over the same period the abortion rate among girls and women under 20 has dropped by 22%.

Figures for 2011 showed that under-16s had 285 terminations while the total for those aged 16 to 19 was 2418.

However, 29% of women having an abortion in 2011 had had at least one previous termination - up from 25.4% in 2005. In 2011, a total of 3,616 abortions were performed on women who had already had at least one termination.

In the NHS Tayside area, 35.5% of women who had an abortion had previously ended a pregnancy.

A Scottish Government spokesman said that while there had been an "encouraging" fall in the abortion rate, ministers were disappointed that the number of repeat abortions remained high.

The number of abortions carried out on women from the most deprived parts of Scotland was more than double the number on those from the most affluent areas.

Women from the worst-off areas had 3553 terminations compared to 1678 for women from the least-deprived communities.

Almost two-thirds of terminations were carried out early in the pregnancy, with 65.5% of abortions performed before nine weeks, up from 62.2% in 2009.

The overwhelming majority of terminations were carried out on the basis that the women was not more than 24 weeks pregnant and that "the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk, greater than if the pregnancy were not terminated, of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant women".

A total of 93% of abortions in 2011 were performed for this reason.

Meanwhile, 136 pregnancies were ended because there was a substantial risk the child would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities that it would be seriously handicapped.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "It is encouraging to see that the abortion rate in Scotland has fallen for the third year and that the rate of abortion in Scotland continues to be lower than in England and Wales. We have been working with NHS boards and local authorities to tackle unintended pregnancy and we are moving in the right direction."

The spokesman added: "We are pleased to see that the percentage of women who had their abortion before nine weeks' gestation has increased, as termination earlier in pregnancy provides better health outcomes for the woman and reduces any risk from the procedure.

NHS board areas are working hard to achieve Healthcare Improvement Scotland's target that at least 70% of terminations are carried out by nine weeks' gestation."

He stressed the "vital role" of education in reducing the number of unplanned pregnancies and said the sexual health framework "promotes relationships, sexual health and parenthood education for all young people" along with long-term contraception and increased availability of sexual health services.

The spokesman said: "We are disappointed to see that the rate of women having repeat terminations remains high within the context of falling abortion rates.

"This is a priority area for the Scottish Government and by encouraging the uptake of longer-acting reversible contraception for those who have terminations, we are looking for an impact on the number undergoing a repeat termination.

"We are currently funding research with the Medical Research Council to explore a number of aspects of terminations including repeat terminations."

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