In the five years since the introduction of pills-by-post, more than 54,000 women have been admitted to an NHS hospital in England for the treatment of complications arising from the use of abortion pills. Analysis of accredited official statistics published by NHS England and the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities, shows that 1-in-17 of... Continue Reading →
1,000 women treated each month for abortion complications
In each of the last two years, more than 12,000 women were admitted to hospital in England for treatment of complications arising from a medical abortion. The Department of Health and Social Care has still not told us how many women had an abortion in 2023, but NHS England has just published its data on... Continue Reading →
Government under-reports abortion complications by a factor of 38x
In 2022, official reporting of abortion complications by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) shows just 300 cases across England and Wales. For the year 2022-23, official data from NHS England show 11,256 women diagnosed with abortion complications at an NHS hospital. The NHS data are known to the OHID, as evidenced in its November 2023 report which compares these two data sources, Abortion Notification System (ANS) and Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), and yet government officials refuse to make any change to official annual reporting. The NHS England data are easily accessible by any interested person and the above 11,256 can be retrieved online from NHS Digital in a matter of minutes. No prolonged data compilation, cleaning, and analysis; no need for a Freedom of Information request.
FOI requesting HES data on the treatment of abortion complications in England, 2017 to 2023.
We have published a new report outlining findings from an FOI investigation in which we requested data related to the diagnosis of abortion complications, from all NHS Hospital Trusts in England. Key Points The Office for Health Improvement & Disparities (part of the Department of Health and Social Care) published a one-off report in November... Continue Reading →
Complications reporting is complicated and incomplete
An effective medical abortion is defined by the MARE Guidelines[i] as a successful expulsion of an intrauterine pregnancy without the need for surgical intervention, clarified by the following sub-categories: Continuing pregnancy: treated with surgical management Continuing pregnancy: patient opted to continue or outcome is unknown Retained products treated with surgical management (an evacuation of retained... Continue Reading →
Abortion Complications – new official statistics
On 23 November 2023, the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities (OHID), part of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), published new official statistics reporting the rate of complications arising from abortions in England. Previous reporting from the DHSC relied solely on data gathered from the HSA4 forms that are routinely submitted by... Continue Reading →
3,900 hospital admissions in 2021 for abortion complications
In England during 2021, at least 3,900 women were admitted to an NHS hospital for surgical treatment of complications arising from abortion. On 23 November 2023, the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities (OHID), part of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), published new official statistics reporting the rate of complications arising from... Continue Reading →
Abortion complications massively under-reported
Abortion providers are massively under-reporting the incidence of complications arising from incomplete medical abortions. They also under-state the risk of an incomplete abortion when consenting women for this procedure. Thankfully, Lord Jackson has questioned the Government about this critical issue and is holding the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) to account to ensure... Continue Reading →
At-home abortions are putting women’s health at risk.
This post was first published by Christian Today on 14 July 2023. Across England and Wales, three in every four abortions - or 75% - are now performed by women at home using abortion pills. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) recently reported a 17% increase in the number of abortions: a total of 123,219... Continue Reading →
Less Than 1-in-5 Complications are Reported.
Did you know that the Government and Abortion Providers routinely under report the rate of complications caused by abortion pills? Our freedom of information investigation reveals that less than 1-in-5 complications are being reported. DHSC Under Report. The official DHSC statistics for 2020 show a 1.1% complication rate for all medical abortions and only 0.3%... Continue Reading →
How ‘DIY’ home abortion is placing women at risk.
On 23 March 2021, I presented at an online briefing hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group for MPs from across the UK, along with politicians from the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd. This was an opportunity to share some of the findings from our recent freedom of information investigation. Led by Co-Chair of the... Continue Reading →
Listen to the all of the data, not just some of it.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) is promoting a new cohort study into the safety, efficacy, and acceptability of telemedicine early medical abortion by Aiken et al. published in BJOG here. RCOG lauds this as the largest data study into telemedicine abortion, whilst the authors caution that there are gaps and possible inconsistencies... Continue Reading →
Is the rate of abortion complications falling?
Official government data shows that each year, over 300 women suffer complications from abortion. Statistics from the Department of Health and Social Care for the last five years, shows that each year, 313 women who have an abortion in England and Wales, suffer from complications requiring hospital treatment, including haemorrhage, sepsis, and uterine perforations. This... Continue Reading →
How the pandemic revolutionised abortion access in the UK.
This is my response to an article in the New Statesman on December 15th, 2020. My main concern is the assertion that abortion has become safer since the introduction of telemedicine in April. The article states that there has been just one complication in more than 23,000 abortions at home, and that is clearly wrong,... Continue Reading →