As many as one in three pregnancies in the UK may now be ending in abortion, projections from an independent public health consultant state – prompting alarm from Christians.
A new report from Kevin Duffy of Percuity says that while one in four pregnancies ended in abortion in 2019, the figures are predicted to have shot up to one in three for 2023. Overall, the number of abortions in England and Wales this year could be as high as 325,000.
Abortion organisations are pointing to the cost-of-living crisis as the reason for this increase, as mothers who can’t financially support a child choose instead to end their pregnancy. The Chief of Staff at British Pregnancy Advisory Service, for example, recently tweeted: ‘Where women can’t afford children, we want to ensure they have the legal right and ability to make the difficult decision to end a pregnancy.’
Reflecting on this, Louise Davies, Director of Advocacy and Policy at CARE (Christian Action, Research and Education), told en: ‘We’re concerned that many women feel pressure to have an abortion due to the high cost of living and unjust lack of other options. Women often lack adequate support to continue their pregnancies and are not signposted to abortion alternatives – advice is very much one way.
‘The abortion industry has powerful influence, and pro-life organisations are treated with suspicion and sometimes outright hostility. It’s deeply sad.
‘It is devastating to consider that as many as one in three pregnancies are now ending in abortion in England and Wales. We pray and advocate for a country that values human life from its very beginning and recognises that in every pregnancy there are two precious human beings present. A just and compassionate country seeks to meet the needs of both mother and child, before birth and afterwards.’
These recent statistics bring a crisis back into that spotlight that’s been ongoing for decades. Across the last 50 years, an estimated 10.2 million lives in the UK have been lost to abortion.
According to advocacy group Christian Concern, these findings reflect a wider ‘culture of death’ in Britain today.
‘The church needs to be a prophetic and pastoral voice in responding to this crisis, perhaps the largest injustice of our day,’ says Christian Concern’s Andrea Williams, speaking to en.
‘We have a unique position of being both able to confess the horror of abortion – because we recognise the sanctity of the unborn child and the beautiful truth of being made in the image of God – and to proclaim the gospel of grace and forgiveness for all those affected, including mothers, to tell those burdened by the memory of abortion that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.’
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