Today marks the 58th anniversary of the Abortion Act coming into effect in 1968 – six months after it received Royal Assent.
Since then, a staggering 11,105,671* unborn babies have lost their lives to abortion across the UK. At the current rate of abortion, according to the most recent figures, one baby is lost to abortion every two minutes, 34 lives are ended every hour.
The number of abortions in England and Wales has reached a record high with 278,740 taking place in 2023, and a total of almost 300,000 across the whole of the UK. There were a record 18,710 terminations performed in Scotland in 2024. In Northern Ireland, there were 2,899 abortions in the year ending 31 March 2025, compared with 2,795 in the previous year.
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This significant rise in abortions in England and Wales has accompanied the introduction of ‘DIY’ home abortion services that have been operating in England and Wales since March 2020. Since ‘DIY’ home abortions were introduced, a number of significant problems have arisen.
Abortion statistics released by the Department of Health and Social Care show that in England and Wales, there was a total of 278,740 abortions in 2023, an increase of 26,618 abortions from 2022, when there were 252,122 abortions. This is the highest ever number on record. There were an estimated total number of abortions across the United Kingdom in 2023 of 299,617 – the highest ever recorded.
Opinion polls repeatedly show that the public wants increased protections for unborn babies and more support for mothers facing unplanned pregnancies – rather than the wholesale removal of legal safeguards around abortion.
Only 1% of the population wants abortion to be available up to birth, and 70% of women want the abortion limit to be reduced to 20 weeks or lower.
A spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said:
“The UK’s abortion law is failing both women and unborn babies. It is a national tragedy that 11,105,671 lives have been lost since the 1967 Abortion Act came into effect, each one a unique and valuable human being who was denied the right to life”.
“Each of these lives was someone’s son or daughter, and each of these lives mattered”.
“The societal effects of this loss of life are almost incalculable. There are literally millions of ‘missing’ people because of abortion. Not only those 11,105,671 who actually lost their lives to abortion, but also their likely millions of descendants who never were”.
“Every one of these abortions represents a collective failure of our society to protect the lives of babies in the womb and a failure to offer full support to women with unplanned pregnancies”.
“While we may pause to commemorate this tragedy, this day also serves as a call to action for people around the country to renew their efforts to do everything they can to help ensure more lives are saved from abortion in the future”.
“This includes contacting MPs and asking them to ensure that protections for unborn babies are introduced and safeguards are strengthened to protect both mothers and babies – along with volunteering with pregnancy support centres and undertaking other pro-life activities that support mothers and their children in pregnancy and beyond”.
“By being proactive and taking action, every single one of us can be part of building a pro-life nation where we protect and defend the right to life of every human being from conception to natural death”.
