Nearly one in three conceptions in England and Wales ends in abortion, newest government figures have revealed. Source: OSV News.
Statistics on annual conceptions, released on July 9 by the Office for National Statistics, showed that in 2022, 29.69 per cent of all conceptions in England and Wales ended in abortion, up from 26.54 per cent a year earlier.
The figures represent a huge increase in abortion within a decade, since in 2012 abortion ended 20.84 per cent of conceptions – a fifth of all pregnancies.
The revelations were met with sadness by Catholic leaders in England.
Archbishop John Sherrington of Liverpool, the city with one of the highest rates of abortion in the UK, noted in a July 11 statement posted on the website of the bishops’ conference of England and Wales, that the figures revealed in some parts of the country claim “nearly half” of all conceptions ended in abortion.
“We need rapidly to re-establish a culture of life in which the unborn child is properly protected in legislation,” Archbishop Sherrington said.
Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth described the figures as “shocking and tragic.”
“Abortion cannot but deeply damage any mother who chooses to terminate her child,” Bishop Egan said in a July 11 message.
“With state-assisted suicide and euthanasia, a menacing culture of death is now growing under the surface that will inexorably depreciate the dignity and value afforded to the weakest members of society,” he said.
The Office for National Statistics’ figures show there were 834,260 conceptions for women resident in England and Wales in 2022, and 247,703 of these conceptions led to abortion.
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Nearly one in three conceptions in England and Wales end in abortion, government figures reveal (By Simon Caldwell, OSV News)
