Abortion at 'staggering levels' after 11% rise

The number of abortions in England and Wales has reached "staggering" levels, a Christian pro-life and pro-women leader says.

Dawn McAvoy of Both Lives UK was commenting on the Government's 2023 "Abortion statistics commentary" for England and Wales, released earlier this month. A total of 277,970 abortions are reported to have taken place.

"We have waited two years for this report, and the scale of what it reveals is staggering," she said. Both Lives UK is a UK-wide initiative of the Evangelical Alliance (EA) which describes itself as "pro-women and pro-life."

The level of abortions is reportedly the highest number recorded since the Abortion Act 1967, and a rise of 11 percent from 2022.

"These statistics must not be dismissed as numbers on a spreadsheet or points on a graph," McAvoy writes. "They represent real women and real babies, and their impact reaches far beyond individual lives — shaping British society and culture itself.

"The current system can no longer credibly be described as pro-choice. With every new abortion report, it becomes increasingly clear that this is not a genuinely pro-choice health and social system. Instead, it is one that prioritises funding, providing, and promoting one choice and one outcome — abortion."

"The legal requirement to collect abortion data and record abortion statistics is not a box-ticking exercise. Understanding the ​‘why’ is essential if we are to respond to women’s real needs and address the social and structural failures that drive abortion. This is particularly urgent for women who report that abortion was not their preferred choice.

"Many women tell us they would have chosen life for their baby if a genuine, practical alternative had been available. These figures demand that policymakers listen to those voices and act."

McAvoy's full response to the figures can be read EA's website, here. It is unclear why it takes until January 2026 to publish abortion figures for the year 2023.