Surging demand for abortions is forcing some women to wait more than three weeks for a termination, triple the recommended timeframe, a senior NHS official warns.
Abortion demand in England and Wales has hit ‘unprecedented’ levels with NHS services ‘under great pressure’ as a result according to Steve Russell, the chief delivery officer for NHS England.
Issuing a warning in a letter to senior health bosses he said demand was up 17 per cent in the first half of 2022, the latest available data.
He added that providers were warning that women needing surgical abortions were facing waits well outside of accepted standards.
Guidelines state patients seeking an abortion should be assessed within a week of their request and any subsequent procedures should be completed within a week of that assessment.
But Mr Russel said some providers reported they are unable to adhere to this due to surging demand, with some women experiencing delays of three weeks or longer.
One in four conceptions resulted in abortion in 2021 and more than 200,000 abortions were performed, according to ONS data
‘As a result of significant service pressures, providers tell us wait times for surgical abortions (circa 13% of procedures) do not meet these standards – often being 3 weeks or longer,’ his letter reads.
Surgical abortions are carried out if the mother is between 10 and 24 weeks pregnant, in comparison to the ‘abortion pill’ or medical abortion which is offered to women under 10 weeks pregnant.
There are numerous reasons women get surgical abortions, from saying a baby would harm their health or they cannot financially care for it to medical conditions that mean a mother’s life would be put at risk if the pregnancy were to continue.
Patients seeking an abortion should get an assessment within a week of request and it should be completed also within the week, according to NICE guidelines.
Mr Russel also highlighted ‘significant continuity risks’ to keep abortion services open with evidence that some contractors, especially those providing surgical procedures, were not receiving adequate funding.
‘The nature of the abortion sector means that there are national and regional risks if the fragility we are seeing in services is not addressed,’ the letter reads.
He also expressed his concern for ‘vulnerable patients’ who might need these services and impacted by delays.
He said: ‘A small but important number of service users will have experienced crime, including rape, domestic abuse, coercion, modern slavery or sexual exploitation. In addition, those living in the areas of highest deprivation are twice as likely to use these services.’
More than 200,000 abortions were performed in 2021, and the Office of National Statistics reports more than a quarter of conceptions resulted in abortion that year, a record high rate for England and Wales.
Charities have blamed the cost-of-living-crisis for contributing to these ‘unprecedented’ level of demand for abortions .
There were 123,219 abortions carried out between January and June 2022, compared to 105,488 for the same period in 2021, figures show.
Nearly 215,000 abortions were carried out in England and Wales in 2021, according to Government data, up 2 per cent on the year before.
More than half were carried out at home via the pills by post service, which was set up at the start of the pandemic so women could access medical abortions, according to the report from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities.
The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) previously warned the cost-of-living crisis and ‘financial pressures’ on households were partly to blame for the surge and that it couldn’t see the rise slowing down.
BPAS chief executive Clare Murphy said: ‘The financial pressures on households will have forced women and their partners to make sometimes tough decisions around continuing or ending a pregnancy.’
She said unplanned pregnancies are ‘not always unwanted’ and that many women using BPAS services say ‘the circumstances they are in mean it is simply not the right time to start or expand a family’.
Ms Murphy has called for better access to emergency contraception and wants it to be available on supermarket and pharmacy shelves rather than over the counter with women having to go through ‘clinically unnecessary’ consultations.
She added: ‘No contraceptive method however will ever negate the need for swift, accessible abortion care and BPAS is committed to provide kind, compassionate care to every woman who needs us, whenever that may be.’
The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), which provides abortion care, said abortions increased by 17 per cent between 2021 and 2022
Office for Health Improvement and Disparities data shows 214,869 women had abortions in England and Wale in 2021, up 2 per cent on the more than 210,000 recorded in 2020
British women who are beyond nine weeks and six days pregnant can go for a surgical abortion on the NHS.
The general limit for these abortions in the UK is 24 weeks of pregnancy but they can be carried out after under very limited circumstances.
These include if the mother’s life would be put in danger by the pregnancy continuing or if a test has revealed the child has a severe disability.
Surgical abortions are a fraction of total abortions carried out in the UK, only accounting for 13 per cent of terminations in 2021.
The number of abortions carried out in over-35s has been rising over the past decade. In 2011, 27,199 had a termination, compared to 40,789 in 2021.
