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Dept of Health

Answer

Mr. Bendall: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the statistically most likely candidate for an abortion within the North Thames region in the latest year for which figures are available in terms of (a) age of the woman, (b) marital status of the woman, (c) the number of previous children of the woman and (d) the grounds under which the abortion is performed.[37006] Mr. Horam: Statistically most likely candidate for an abortion for each of the variables listed is defined as the category with the highest recorded frequency of legal terminations. The information is based on all legal terminations in the North Thames region in 1993. The categories with the highest frequencies found in each of the variable listed were: age of the woman: 20 to 24 age group comprised 29.3 per cent-- 10,449--of all terminations; material status of the woman: single women comprised 67.3 per cent.--23.963--of all terminations; number of previous children of the women: women with no previous live and still born children comprised 55.6 per cent.--19,808--of all terminations; and grounds under which the abortion is performed: statutory ground C alone comprised 92.3 per cent.--32.869--of all terminations. Ground C is defined as meaning that the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated, of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

37006; 281 c494-5W

Session

1995-96

Subjects

Abortion Statistics North Thames Health Region

Contains statistics

Yes