Scotland has reported its second-highest annual abortion figure on record.
Public Health Scotland announced on August 25 that 13,583 abortions were performed in 2019, with a termination rate of 13.2 per 1,000 women aged between 15 and 44.
Last year’s figure is the highest since 2008 and represents an increase of 297 from 2018 when there were 13,286 abortions.
More than half of women undergoing abortions in 2019 were in their 20s. Abortion rates in the 40-plus age group have risen steadily from 256 in 1985 to 581 terminations in 2019 – the highest ever level.
Almost half of medical abortions in 2019 involved the self-administration of the drug misoprostol at home.
Guidelines
Robinson said that Scotland’s abortion figure was likely to be even higher in 2020.
“A change of guidelines in 2018, which allows women to take the second set of abortion pills involved in a medical abortion out of clinical settings accounted for nearly 50% of medical abortions in 2019. This is up from nearly 30% in 2018, but is likely to further increase next year when 2020 statistics are published due to a change in guidance allowing ‘DIY’ home abortions in response to the coronavirus pandemic,” she said.
In its annual report, Public Health Scotland said that there continued to be a “strong association” between deprivation and abortion rates in Scotland, which has a population of around 5.5 million.