The recently released UK abortion statistics for 2013 show a
gradual increase, in that the total number of abortions at 185,331 was 0.1%
more than in 2012 (185,122) and 2.1% more than in 2003 (181,582).
The age-standardised abortion rate was highest for women
aged 22 (at 30 per 1,000). Other recorded rates were15.9 per 1,000 women aged
15-44, the under-18 rate was 11.7 per 1,000 women and the under-16 abortion
rate was 2.6 per 1,000 women respectively.
The recently published 2013 statistics also show that for the twelfth
consecutive year the number of abortions recorded for women giving Irish
addresses has declined from a high of 6,673 Irish abortions in 2001 to 3679 in 2013 representing a reduction
of 44.8%. The figures also denote a year on year reduction, down from 3982 in
2012 to the current level of 3679
These reductions are to be welcomed however the fact that
the lives of 3679 Irish babies were terminated in 2013 is a tragedy and more
must be done to ensure that every baby who is conceived will be brought to
birth and welcomed into our society.
Every abortion is an immense human tragedy but the
significant drop in numbers travelling to Britain for abortion over the past 12
years is a positive development.
Sadly the introduction of abortion legislation into Ireland
while it has not yet come into effect will influence future abortion statistics.
Attitudes, which foster the idea of abortion as any kind of
a solution to pregnancy must be firmly rejected and perpetrators and
facilitators of this barbaric act who operate under the guise of caring for
women, must be exposed. Abortion
is big business.
Paul Tully, General Secretary of the Society for the
Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), in a statement said that the abortion
statistics reveal once again a huge toll of child-killing, now almost wholly
funded by taxpayers. Over 8 million unborn children have now officially been
slaughtered under Britain's iniquitous abortion law, the Abortion Act 1967.
"More abortions than ever are now funded by the NHS, and most of them are performed in private clinics by the so-called abortion charities. Nearly 119,000 unborn children were killed in private hospitals in 2013 at taxpayers' expense. A further 62,000 unborn children were killed in NHS hospitals - also at taxpayers' expense.”