Abortions surge 50 per cent in a decade, Scottish statistics show

There has been a “sustained and substantial” increase in abortions in Scotland in the last ten years, official statistics have found.

Public Health Scotland has published its annual report on abortion, which shows another increase from the previous year with a record high of 18,710 unborn babies killed in 2024.

MPs are expected to vote later this month on amendments aimed at decriminalising abortion in England and Wales. This would allow a woman to kill her unborn baby at any stage of pregnancy without sanction.

‘Sustained and substantial’

A key finding of the report was the trend of “a sustained and substantial increase in demand for termination services, with the average monthly number increasing by 50% between 2015 and 2024.”

The statistics included information on demographics: “The termination rate in the most deprived areas (24.5 per 1000 women aged 15 to 44 years) was double that of the least deprived areas (12.2)”.

The report noted: “The most common method, accounting for 57% of all terminations, involved taking both drugs at home.”

At-home abortions have only been permitted in Scotland since the Covid-19 pandemic.

‘A great tragedy’

Catherine Robinson, spokesperson for Right To Life UK, said: “It is a great tragedy that 18,710 lives were lost to abortion in Scotland last year, the highest number on record”.

She continued: “Every one of these abortions represents a failure of our society to protect the lives of babies in the womb and a failure to offer full support to women with unplanned pregnancies”.

Robinson linked the increased rate to the wider availability of at-home abortions introduced in 2020, and urged the Scottish Government to reinstate in-person consultations: “The clear solution here is the urgent reinstatement of in-person appointments. This would prevent women’s lives from being put at risk from self-administered late-term abortions”.

Attempts to decriminalise

In Westminster, Labour MPs Tonia Antoniazzi and Stella Creasy have each put forward amendments aimed at decriminalising abortion through the Crime and Policing Bill, which is currently progressing through Parliament.

Creasy has made clear she not only wants to decriminalise it, but wants to make abortion a ‘human right’: “Other countries have enshrined a human right to access abortion – doing that here and writing this right into law for the first time ever could help prevent any rollback in rights and provide a future for ensuring everyone can access a safe and legal abortion if they choose to do so.”

Tory MP Neil O’Brien warned that further liberalising abortion law “could drive more women to attempt late-term, at-home abortions well beyond our 24-week abortion time limit, needlessly putting their lives in danger”.