520 abortions every day
Fraser Nelson 6:13pmI would have missed this ONS study had it not been to the very last line in the Guardian’s story about the number of over-40s giving birth. “In other findings, conceptions outside marriage increased from 47% to 56%,” it said.
Now, I’ve blogged before about most births (amongst non-immigrants) being outside marriage this year for the first time, but it turns out it has long been true for conceptions. One figure too grim for newspapers to print: of the 866,000 conceived in Britain in 2006, just 78% made it to the maternity ward. Our abortion rate is 22%.
The ONS study doesn’t include miscarriages or illegal abortions, thus magnifying the percentages slightly. But the fact remains: this country is performing 520 abortions every day.
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Comments
Tanuki
February 28th, 2008 7:46pmSo why is this worth blogging about? Truth is, the Human race is emphatically not an endangered species. If anything we're breeding rather too well for our own sakes - hence I'm pretty much 100% in favour of actions which reduce our overall fecundity.
Max Kaye
February 28th, 2008 8:04pmIf it is indeed a fact that the convicted murderer Levy Bellfield has 11 children by 5 different women, It seems to me that abortion should be actively encouraged among certain social groups.
dexey
February 28th, 2008 10:13pmRather than abort the child, prevent the conception.
Mark Raphael
February 28th, 2008 10:43pmIt's horrendous. I also hate the fact that Cameron and others are saying the abortion limit should be set at 20-weeks. If they think that then surely they should be demanding a change in the law asap because effectively they are saying that the UK is currently committing state-sponsored mass murder - 520 times a day.