According to Government figures published this week, 196,082 officially sanctioned abortions were performed in England and Wales last year. There were a further 12,471 abortions in Scotland, making a total of 208,553 in England, Scotland and Wales. That's 17,000 a month; 4,000 a week; something like 600 a day.
Of the 196,082 abortions in England and Wales, 189,931 were on England and Wales residents. Of these, 98 per cent were carried out on the ground that the continuation of pregnancy would involve risk to the physical or mental health of the woman greater than if the pregnancy were terminated. Of these, 99.96 per cent were on mental health grounds - despite the fact that there is no evidence that continuing with an unplanned pregnancy poses any greater risk to a mother's mental health than having an abortion.
Only one per cent of abortions were carried out because of the risk of the baby's being born handicapped.
Ninety-six per cent of abortions were funded by the NHS. Sixty-one per cent of abortions took place in private clinics under NHS contract.
Thirty-six per cent of women having an abortion last year had had one or more abortions previously.
When 49 children were massacred in Syria the other day, European countries expelled Syrian diplomats in protest. Yet when 208,553 unborn children were massacred in Britain last year, as some commentators are pointing out, scarcely anyone turns a hair.
