Official Statistics

Abortion statistics during the coronavirus pandemic: January to June 2020

Statistics on abortions performed during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic from January to June 2020.

Applies to England and Wales

Documents

Details

This report sets out and comments on statistics in England and Wales during the coronavirus pandemic (January to June 2020).

The statistics are obtained from the abortion notification forms returned to the chief medical officers of England and Wales.

Published 10 September 2020
Last updated 17 March 2021 + show all updates
  1. Updated 'Abortion statistics for England and Wales during the COVID-19 pandemic' and replaced the spreadsheet 'Abortion statistics during COVID-19: data tables' with revised version. These changes reflect that the statistics are provisional and subject to revision in the forthcoming 'Abortion statistics for England and Wales: 2020' National Statistics publication on 10 June 2021.

  2. Updated 'Abortion statistics during COVID-19: supplementary analysis, freedom of information requests and other data releases' to include 1 new file: FOI-1267211: Legal abortions: total number of NHS funded abortions, residents of England, April to June, 2017 to 2020.

  3. Updated 'Abortion statistics during COVID-19: supplementary analysis, freedom of information requests and other data releases' to include 3 new requests: 1) FOI-1254929: legal abortions: all abortions by country of residence, January to June, 2019 and 2020; 2) FOI-1260054: a) how many cases of complications have been reported across the country for women who took both abortion pills at home, since the government approved home abortions with both pills to be taken at home?; b) has any woman died after taking both abortion pills at home since home abortions with both pills taken at home was approved?; c) I understand that a number of abortion clinics are being investigated for breaking the law relating to medical abortions. Please provide the names of these abortion providers and what were the circumstances of the breach in each case; 3) FOI-1257670: a) legal medical abortions: gestation (weeks) by home use and types of complication, residents of England and Wales, 2019 and January to June 2020; b) legal medical abortions: gestation (weeks) by home use and rate of complication, residents of England and Wales, 2019 and January to June 2020.

  4. Added new document: 'Abortion statistics during COVID-19: supplementary analysis, freedom of information requests and other data releases'. This includes 4 new files: 1) age by gestation weeks, 2) ethnicity by gestation weeks, 3) marital status by gestation weeks, 4) number of women they are aware of who have gained access to medical abortion pills past the current 10-week limit on ‘home’ abortion and the 24-week legal limit.

  5. First published.