Unprecedented demand for abortions is leaving some women waiting ‘too long’ for an abortion, with NHS officials warning some services could fail

Rising demand for abortions is forcing some women to wait more than three weeks for an abortion, three times the recommended time, a senior NHS official has warned.

Demand for abortion in England and Wales has reached “unprecedented” levels and NHS services are “under significant pressure” as a result, according to Steve Russell, head of delivery at NHS England.

In a letter to senior health bosses, he warned that demand had risen by 17 percent in the first half of 2022, the latest available data shows.

He added that providers warned that women needing surgical abortions faced wait times far outside accepted norms.

According to the guidelines, 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 Russell said some providers reported they are unable to comply due to rising demand, with some women experiencing delays of three weeks or more.

“As a result of significant pressure on services, providers tell us that wait times for surgical abortions (approximately 13% of procedures) do not meet these standards – often being three weeks or longer,” his letter reads.

Surgical abortions are performed when the mother is between 10 and 24 weeks pregnant, compared to the ‘abortion pill’ or medical abortion offered to women less than 10 weeks pregnant.

There are numerous reasons why women have a surgical abortion, from saying that having a baby would harm their health or that they cannot financially support it, to medical conditions that the mother’s life would be at risk if the pregnancy were to continue.

Patients seeking an abortion should receive an assessment within a week of requesting it and this should be completed within a week, according to NICE guidelines.

Mr Russell also highlighted “significant continuity risks” to keeping abortion services open, pointing out that some contractors, particularly those carrying out surgical procedures, were not receiving adequate funding.

“The nature of the abortion sector means there are national and regional risks if the vulnerability we see in services is not addressed,” the letter said.

He also raised concerns about “vulnerable patients” who may need these services and are being affected by delays.

He said: ‘A small but significant number of service users will have experienced crime including rape, domestic violence, coercion, modern slavery or sexual exploitation. Furthermore, people living in the most deprived areas are twice as likely to use these services.”

More than 200,000 abortions were performed in 2021, and the Office of National Statistics reports that more than a quarter of conceptions that year resulted in abortion, a record high for England and Wales.

Charities have blamed the cost of living crisis for contributing to this ‘unprecedented’ level of demand for abortions.

There were 123,219 abortions carried out between January and June 2022, compared to 105,488 in the same period in 2021, figures show.

Nearly 215,000 abortions were carried out in England and Wales in 2021, a 2 per cent increase on the previous year, according to government data.

More than half were performed at home through the pill-by-mail service, which was set up at the start of the pandemic so women could access medical abortions, according to the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities report.

The UK Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) previously warned that the cost of living crisis and ‘financial pressure’ on households were partly responsible for the increase and that they could not see the rise slowing.

BPAS chief executive Clare Murphy said: ‘The financial pressures on households will have forced women and their partners to make sometimes difficult decisions about whether to continue or end a pregnancy.’

She said unplanned pregnancies are “not always unwanted” and that many women who use BPAS services say that “the circumstances they are in are 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 being available over the counter, requiring women to undergo ‘clinically unnecessary’ consultations.

She added: ‘However, no method of contraception will ever negate the need for prompt, accessible abortion care and BPAS is committed to providing kind, compassionate care to every woman who needs us, whenever that is.’

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), which provides abortion care, says the number of abortions increased by 17 percent between 2021 and 2022.

Data from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows that 214,869 women had abortions in England and Wales in 2021, a 2 percent increase on the more than 210,000 women registered in 2020

British women who are more than nine weeks and six days pregnant can go to the NHS for a surgical abortion.

The general limit for these abortions in Britain is 24 weeks of pregnancy, but they can be performed afterwards in very limited circumstances.

This includes the case where the mother’s life would be at risk if the pregnancy continues or if a test shows that the child has a serious disability.

Surgical abortions make up a fraction of the total number of abortions performed in Britain, accounting for just 13 percent of abortions in 2021.

The number of abortions among people over 35 has increased over the past ten years. In 2011, 27,199 had notices of termination, compared to 40,789 in 2021.