The latest figures for abortions in Britain (England, Wales
and Northern Ireland, but not Scotland) confirm a sad and disturbing trend: the
rise of abortions among women in their 40s.
The number has risen by almost one third over the last
decade, to 8179, reports
the London Telegraph. Among these women were 650 above the age of 45, and 21
aged 50 and over.
My first thought on seeing these figures was that the trend
must be due to the rising age of marriage and later pregnancies with their
increasing risk of fetal abnormalities, and it is true that abortions for Down
syndrome and other conditions have increased lately. The UK Society for the
Protection of the Unborn Child notes:
“A notable shift in the figures for 2010 is an increase of
nearly 10% in abortions of disabled babies. 2290 disabled babies were destroyed
in 2010, compared to 2085 in 2009. The average for the past 5 years had been
under 2000.
But that is only part of the story. Says the Telegraph:
However, most abortions among older women took place before
12 weeks, which is when the first antenatal screening takes place. Among women
aged 35 and over [there aren’t figures for 40+ on this], just 2,200 abortions
occurred after that point.
The dismal truth is perhaps better captured by one of
Britain’s leading abortionists:
Ann Furedi, chief executive of the British Pregnancy
Advisory Service, said: “I think women are generally remaining sexually
active for longer, and women in their 40s increasingly see themselves as sexual
players – whether or not they are in relationships – in a way that they didn’t
even a decade ago.”
“Sexual players”. How depressing. Women entering middle age,
still playing with sex like teenagers or playing the sex market (second or
third time round?) in a desperate bid to find a partner for the rest of their
lives. Women born after abortion was legalised (1968 in the UK) and who grew up
in the awful 1970s and 1980s surrounded by the propaganda of liberation and
choice.
Women who may never have found a marriage partner (43 per
cent of British women under 50 in 2009 had never married) or who, if they did
marry, had a high risk of divorce (one three marriages ended in divorce in 1980
and the rate has increased since then).
Sad, but ironic too, that 30 or so years of safe sex information
and subsidised contraception has done nothing at all for them except land them
in the abortion clinic – where, I dare say, even the abortionists look askance
at their ineptitude.
One positive statistic to leave you with: fewer women from
Northern Ireland, where abortion is illegal, are travelling to England for abortions.
The figure has gone down from 1577 in 2001 to 1101 in 2010.
